Introduction
The purpose of this Charter is to outline the general principles and values that Smile Together Dental CIC and its people seek to apply in all engagements with patients, other service users and stakeholders.
Our Service
Our aim is to provide high quality patient care to the highest professional standards for all patients who are seen at a Smile Together location.
We have a suite of policies and procedures that define the duty of care we provide for our patients. These are reviewed and updated on a regular basis.
Our mission at Smile Together is to tackle oral health inequality, creating healthier happier communities. We’re proudly commissioned by NHS England to provide urgent and emergency dental treatments for people who don’t have their own dentist, run out-of-hours surgeries, and apply expert skills to treat children and adults with a range of special care needs alongside oral surgery, children’s orthodontics, and treatments under general anaesthetic in a hospital setting. We also deliver NHS care and competitively priced routine and private dentistry from practices based in the heart of their communities, see children for free and run dedicated clinics for children in care and those experiencing homelessness. We have a team of approximately 130 people in a range of clinical and professional services roles.
Smile Together sees around 40,000 patients a year across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly including visitors to the county. Our teams are highly experienced, caring, and professional in delivering the best patient care possible and generously making a difference in their local communities.
We are monitored by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) who regulate and inspect dental services nationally. They make sure we operate a consistently safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality, caring environment for patients.
Please follow this link for more information about the CQC: https://www.cqc.org.uk/sites/default/files/documents/standards_to_expect_dentist.pdf
Our People
We are very proud of our people. Our clinical colleagues are all qualified, registered with the General Dental Council (GDC) and trained to the highest standards.
We adhere to ‘Standards for the Dental Team’, which sets out the standards of conduct, performance and ethics that govern dental professionals and which applies to all members of the dental team. These standards are a requirement of the GDC and ensure that patients are properly treated in a clean and safe environment. We maintain a safe workplace and a safe and healthy working environment.
Professionalism
Our people act in a professional manner at all times with patients, visitors and one another and aim to be polite, helpful, and sensitive to all individual needs and circumstances.
Our people are competent in their roles, selected according to our company values and behaviours.
Every member of the team is appraised on a half-yearly and annual basis and appropriately managed to ensure standards are maintained and services continually improved.
In the unlikely event that a clinician in this service becomes unfit to practise, there are systems in place to address this.
All Smile Together colleagues are regularly updated and provided with all mandatory training in core subjects and where possible given opportunities for career development and progression.
Every individual is encouraged to undertake continual professional and personal development including via our dedicated Training Academy. Everyone is required to keep their skills up to date, work within current laws and regulations, and know their limits so that patients are referred to other clinicians and services as appropriate.
Our Call Centre team takes between 6,000 and 8,000 calls a month, which equates to around 100,000 callers per year wanting to book an appointment. Our telephone lines are consequently very busy, especially during the mornings, and callers can sometimes be held in a long queue waiting for their call to be answered. We ask that callers remain patient as the team will answer their call as soon as they possibly can.
We ensure that our Call Centre team is at full complement so that calls can be answered as quickly as possible. If a requirement is not urgent, we encourage patients to call after 10.30am when the telephone lines are generally quieter.
We recognise and respect individual rights and will only discuss patient and colleague matters in appropriate settings with appropriate people.
We acknowledge and respect individual rights to privacy and confidentiality.
https://smiletogether.co.uk/your-data-choices/
Our Promise to you
We encourage patients to provide feedback on our services and the care you receive, and to make suggestions about service improvement. You can do this by completing an NHS Friends and Family and/or Smile Together questionnaire, emailing smiletogether.feedback@nhs.net or by submitting online feedback via a number of channels promoted in each location and on small signposting cards available to all patients.
Alternatively, patients can provide feedback via our website at www.smiletogether.co.uk/contact
Our Call Centre colleagues are also happy to take verbal feedback over the telephone on 0333 405 0290.
We have a robust system in place for promptly managing patient feedback. Patient plaudits and thank you’s are recognised and shared with the whole Smile Together team and complaints are acted upon to ensure we learn lessons from any mistakes that are made. We commit to giving you a full and prompt reply to any complaint you make about our services or our care.
At all times we seek to improve our services and the way we work.
A detailed Medical History is taken for every Smile Together patient including any medication you are taking.
Information contained in your Dental Record is always kept confidential and only disclosed to others for purposes related to your health care (except when you have given permission).
All information given is treated in confidence and every Smile Together colleague has a legal duty to keep patient information confidential.
How your dental records are used to help you
Your records are important to ensure that you receive the best possible care from us.
They are used in the following ways to guide and administer the care you receive:
- To ensure that your dentist has accurate and up-to-date information to assess your oral health and decide what care you need
- To ensure that full information is available should you see another dentist or be referred to a specialist or other health service
- To ensure that there is a good basis for looking back and checking on the type and quality of care you have received
Keeping your dental records confidential
Smile Together has a legal duty to maintain the highest level of confidentiality relating to patient information.
In some instances, you may be receiving care from other people as well as Smile Together. We may need to share some information about you with them so that we can all work together for your benefit. Anyone to whom we may send confidential information about you is also under a legal duty of confidence. Unless there are exceptional circumstances (for example, when the health or safety of others is at risk) we will not disclose your information to third parties without your permission.
We will only give your relatives, friends, and carers information if you want us to.
In certain circumstances we are required by law to report information to the appropriate authorities. This information is only provided after formal authority has been given by a qualified health professional, for example:
- Where we encounter infectious diseases, which may endanger the safety of others (e.g. meningitis or measles, but not HIV/AIDS)
- Where a formal court order has been issued
However, our guiding principle is that we are holding your records in strictest confidence.
How you can arrange to see your own dental records
Everyone has the right to see the information that is kept in their medical records. If you want to see yours, you can make a request via the Smile Together Call Centre or access the Subject Access Request Form (SAR) via the following options:
- Smile Together Dental CIC website: https://smiletogether.co.uk/how-do-i-submit-a-subject-access-request-sar/
- Email: infogov@nhs.net
- In writing: Smile Together Dental CIC, Harleigh Road Dental Centre, Harleigh Road, Bodmin, Cornwall, PL31 1AH
We are normally obliged to let you see your information and also to explain any part of the record which you do not understand.
Please ask if you wish to have a copy of a letter written about you to another clinician (e.g. a referral letter).
We will give you full information about the services we offer. Every effort will be made to ensure that you receive the information which directly affects your oral health and the treatment options being offered. Most dental diseases are preventable and advice on how to keep your mouth healthy will also be provided as part of our commitment to making every contact count.
Good communication with our patients is essential to ensure continuous service improvement and to provide accurate, timely and meaningful information. We aim to detect and eliminate potential problems and act upon improvement opportunities quickly and effectively. Smile Together welcomes valid suggestions for improving our services and patient care.
When proposing treatment, patients have the final choice within the competencies of the treating dentists and the remit of Smile Together. For instance, our urgent and emergency care service is commissioned by NHS England to provide treatment to alleviate pain in dental emergencies, but more complicated treatment such as the provision of dentures, crowns and bridges is not included. Options and costs will be explained so that you can make an informed choice.
Some of the treatment options may be beyond the scope of the service and may need referral to a specialist. Any letters or referrals made on your behalf may be copied to you if a request is made.
Where possible and appropriate, all patients are screened for oral diseases including cancer. Patients will be asked about tobacco and alcohol use because these are proven to increase the risk of oral cancer.
NHS regulations require that patients receiving moderate or complex treatment can have a written treatment description and cost estimate. For further information follow this link: http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/1781.aspx?CategoryID=74 ‘How much will I pay for NHS dental treatment?’.
Your responsibilities to us as a service user
Please remember, you are responsible for your own health and that of your children. We will give you our professional help and advice for you to act upon.
‘You will provide honest and accurate answers to clinical questions, including about your medical history, even though you may not feel they are relevant questions. The reason for this is that there is a good deal of overlap between medical conditions, medicines, and dental treatments and each may affect the other.’
Please do everything possible to keep your appointments and those of children or vulnerable adults in your care. Tell us as soon as possible if you cannot keep your appointment so it can be offered to another patient – you can do this by contacting a member of our Call Centre on 0333 405 0290.
We have a Zero Tolerance approach which means we have a right to care for others without fear of being attacked or abused and ask that you treat all members of our team with courtesy and respect.
If anyone is treated in an abusive or threatening way this will be taken very seriously and will not be tolerated. Such behaviour includes using bad language, swearing and verbal abuse, threatening behaviour, and physical violence, and may result in removal from our service. In extreme cases the police will be contacted.
It would be an exceptionally rare event for someone to be excluded from our service and this would be the last resort in cases where the relationship between the patient and the company has irretrievably broken down.