Feedback Centre

Find your service by name or location:

Healthwatch is committed to providing a transparent and honest view of health and social care services. This is your opportunity as the health or social care provider to have your say on comments the public have left. It is designed to be constructive and allow both sides to have a fair and equal say in the matter so please:

Keep the language and tone civil
Don’t mention personal details
Make it relevant to the review

As a service provider, you can leave your response to the original review and the reviewer will be notified of this. However, they will not be able to reply to your response, but can get in contact with Healthwatch Norfolk if they wish to pass any comments along. Remember, your response will be seen by everyone who visits your service page on our website, not just the original reviewer. Your reply is a good opportunity to acknowledge any comments received.

Your Reply

Have you replied before?

Title *

Name*

Job Title*

Email*

Telephone*

Reply *

I'm employed by Together Dental Norwich (Earlham Road) and have authority to leave this response *.

Original Feedback for Together Dental Norwich (Earlham Road):

2

Kicked off the list

My husband and I registered as NHS patients when we moved to Norwich in 2016 and my son is now a patient too. We had our regular check up appointments which we were extremely unimpressed with as we had just come from a private practice in Essex and the difference in treatment was massive. Check up appointments consisted of essentially sitting down, the dentist rubbing his fingers along our gums, saying “all is ok, see you next year!”. Appointments usually took no longer than 5/10 mins, extremely dismissive with us as adults and our son (now 6). Please bear in mind both my husband and I are pretty clued up on dental care and treatments as both of us had monthly appointments for years following orthodontic treatments, so we have quite a lot of positive experiences to compare this practice and dentist with. Reading through the reviews for this particular practice, I honestly believe this may only apply to our particular dentist and my review is in no way a reflection on the rest of the staff. Reception staff have been amazing, the hygienists we have met for regular cleanings have been absolutely delightful and amazingly professional. I feel that there is clearly a difference in treatment and approach when it comes to NHS vs. private patients which is very disappointing. Cherry at the top of the cake though which left me absolutely livid and prompted my review today… I called to book mine and my son’s regular check up and was told I had been de-registered because I didn’t book any check ups last year - 2023. I was told the practice does NOT HAVE to send reminders and this particular dentist reserves the right to kick NHS patients off the list if they haven’t attended for a period of time. When I explained I DID come in late 2023 for a cleaning with the hygienist and didn’t book any check ups with the dentist because I felt there was no concerns regarding my oral health, I was told that is somewhat irrelevant, what matters are the actual appointments with this particular dentist. I was given absolutely no notice to advise me I would be removed if no appointments are made with the dentist. No courtesy phone call, email, text message, nothing. I asked if I could at all appeal to this decision, considering my husband and son are still patients but was told the dentist refused to consider. Absolutely appalling, unbelievable that practices are allowed to do this with NO notice whatsoever. I would understand if I hadn’t visited the practice for a long period of time, but I literally had a hygienist appointment in OCT 2023???