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Here’s a complaint I just sent to the Brighton and Hove primary care trust about the North Laines Dental Practice and my dentist Ilias Triantafyllou:

Dear Sir/Madam,
I’d like to make a complaint about the North Laines Dental Practice in general and Ilias Triantafyllou in particular. I’ve been a patient of this practice since an early age and throughout this time I’ve found it to be a generally very rude and stressful experience – not because of the dental work but because of the attitudes of the staff.

There is one receptionist in particular who is always very abrupt and sarcastic – I don’t know her name but she has been there for as long as I can remember. I understand that they’re probably under stress themselves, but surely the primary function of a receptionist is to make the patients feel welcome? Over the years I’ve gradually started to dread having to make the the phone call to book an appointment, for fear of being scolded for taking too long to decide on an appointment time or stumbling over my words and receiving a sarcastic and rude response.

I’d also like to make a specific complaint about Ilias Triantafyllou, who has been my dentist for the last couple of years. As a dentist he seems very competent, but his attitude and language is rude in the extreme – not just to me as a patient, but I’ve also witnessed him be incredibly rude and abrupt to his assistant. Unsurprisingly he seems to go through assistants at a rapid speed because presumably they get tired of being spoken-to so rudely and leave.

Furthermore, a few months ago I suffered from a tooth abscess which has required a number of visits, each time a temporary filling being put in until the tooth was ready for the final treatment. However, due to a failure of my mobile phone (and consequently the calendar on it), I wasn’t reminded of an appointment and consequently missed it. This was an honest and simple mistake and I haven’t missed any other appointments for the last couple of years at least (if not longer), upon phoning the surgery I was told that Ilias had “struck you off”, and that I would have to find another dentist. I explained that I was half way through a major treatment and asked if there was anything I could do to get them to finish it, and I was basically told that I could try writing to Ilias and requesting that he re-register me (by the same rude receptionist mentioned previously). I decided that I’d thoroughly had-it with this dental practice and decided to register at another one instead.

I’ve now waited a month for an assessment at The Albion Street Dental Practice, whilst still having a temporary filling in one of my teeth. Upon arriving for that assessment I explained that I was half way through a treatment and the dentist I saw there asked me why I’d left the previous dentist – I explained that I’d been “struck off” by Ilias for missing an appointment, and the dentist at the Albion Street surgery explained that they couldn’t strike me off for missing a single appointment in the middle of a treatment and that the Albion Street surgery were low on their quota of treatments so I’d have to wait a couple more months before anything would be done by them, and that I’d be better off going back to The North Laines surgery and having them finish the treatment there.

When comparing the Albion Street surgery with the North Laines Dental Practice the difference is stark – in the Albion Street practice the receptionists are friendly and polite, the dentist I saw was helpful. It even goes as far as the signs on the wall in the waiting room – in the North Laines practice the signs all warn you of things like “If you’re rude to our receptionists, we’ll strike you off”, “If you deface our property we’ll strike you off” etc, in comparison, at the Albion Street practice the signs are about making you feel welcome.

I’ve been unable to speak to the North Laines practice today because it was after 5pm by the time I got home from Albion Street, but I will be calling them first thing on Monday to make an appointment and complain directly to them about having been unfairly struck-off mid-treatment – I’m going to ask to see a dentist other than Ilias and hopefully get the treatment finished at the North Laines practice – I don’t wish to see Ilias again after having been struck off by him. After finishing the treatment at the North Laines practice I would like to move to the Albion Street practice as they have a much friendlier atmosphere.

I’m really writing this complaint after having seen what a dental practice should be like at Albion Street, I really feel that the North Laines practice needs some intervention to change the attitudes there and stop it being such a horrible place to visit.

For your information I am also publishing this complaint to my blog (URL in signature), and I may publish any response from you there as well unless you specifically request that I do not do so.

I look forward to your response.

Yours faithfully,

~Kieran Simkin

This entry was posted on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 5:47 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.