01799 523194Here at The Walden Dental Clinic, customer service and the care of our patients is paramount. We always put our patients first and will go out of our way to help our registered patients. Our staff work incredibly hard to to serve the local community and we see over 25,000 patients on a regular basis. There will be times where you may have to hold longer than we’d like on the phone. please remember that our staff, and especially our reception staff are most likely serving another patient, answering another phone line or helping another member of staff.
There will be times as a NHS patient where you may have to wait longer than you’d like to see a dentist for your next appointment or you may not always be able to see the dentist you want at the time you want. The majority of our patients are wonderful, are respectful, polite and appreciate the service we endeavour to provide to our community. All we ask is that you please be patient with us, please show our staff respect and treat them with kindness. They are only doing their job and will therefore not tolerate any sort of verbal or physical abuse. If they do, then we have no choice but to remove you from our NHS list.
‘Zero Tolerance’ to Abuse
The practice is committed to providing a safe working environment by minimising the risk of violent and aggressive behaviour at work. The working environment is defined as the practice premises and other premises where work is undertaken as part of a person’s official duties including, travelling to and from the other premises.
The following are examples of unacceptable behavior on Practice Premises:
• Using bad language or swearing at practice staff
• Any physical violence towards any members of staff or other patients, such as pushing or shoving
• Verbal abuse towards the staff in any form including verbally insulting the staff
• Racial abuse and sexual harassment will not be tolerated within this practice
• Persistent or unrealistic demands that cause stress to staff will not be accepted
The Practice takes it very seriously if a member of staff is treated in an abusive or violent way.
The Practice supports the government’s ‘Zero Tolerance’ campaign for Health Service Staff. This states that Dentists and their staff have a right to care for others without fear of being attacked or abused. To successfully provide these services a mutual respect between all the staff and patients has to be in place. All our staff aim to be polite, helpful, and sensitive to all patients’ individual needs and circumstances. They would respectfully remind patients that very often staff could be confronted with a multitude of varying and sometimes difficult tasks and situations, all at the same time. The staff understand that patients in pain do not always act in a reasonable manner and will take this into consideration when trying to deal with a misunderstanding or complaint.
Aggressive behaviour, be it violent or abusive, will not be tolerated and may result in you being removed from the Practice list and, in extreme cases, the Police being contacted.
The Walden Dental Team
