Decision Report 201407829

Summary

Ms C was charged by her dental practice for a missed appointment. Ms C felt this was unreasonable in the circumstances and complained to the practice about this. She was dissatisfied with the practice's response and made further complaints. Following a subsequent visit to the practice she and her daughter were removed from the practice's treatment list. Ms C complained about this and was dissatisfied with the response she received. She complained further and also received a reminder for a check-up despite her having been removed from the practice's treatment list. Ms C complained about these matters but did not receive a response from the practice. She raised her complaints with this office.

We attempted to resolve the matter but this was unsuccessful. Following consideration we decided that the practice's actions in charging Ms C for the missed appointment, failing to send a reminder for an appointment and sending two copies of the letter advising Ms C that she had been removed from their treatment list were not unreasonable. We also found that there was insufficient evidence to determine whether the practice had refused to treat Ms C's daughter due to Ms C's outstanding debt. However, we did decide that the practice's actions in refusing Ms C's request for a meeting to discuss her complaints, the process by which they removed Ms C from their treatment list, their response to Ms C's complaints and their having sent her a reminder for a check-up after they had removed her from the treatment list were unreasonable and upheld these aspects of the complaint.

Recommendations

We recommended that the practice:

• apologise to Ms C for the failures we identified; and
• undertake training with all practice staff in relation to the removal of patients from treatment lists and the practice's complaints procedure.