Zero Tolerance

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 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 ill patients do not always act in a reasonable manner and will take this into consideration when trying to deal with a misunderstanding or complaint.

However, 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.

In order for the practice to maintain good relations with their patients the practice would like to ask all its patients to read and take note of the occasional types of behaviour that would be found unacceptable:

• Using bad language or swearing at practice staff, especially our front-of-house team

• Shouting, pointing fingers, or other angry gestures that results in staff feeling scared or unsafe

• Any physical violence towards any staff member 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.

• Threats of striking off a clinician or forcing closure of the practice

Requests will be met wherever possible and explanations given when they cannot:

• Causing damage/stealing from the Practice’s premises, staff or patients

• Obtaining drugs and/or medical services fraudulently

We ask you to treat your Dentists and their staff courteously at all times.

Removal from the practice list

A good patient-practice relationship, based on mutual respect and trust, is the cornerstone of good patient care. The removal of patients from our list is an exceptional and rare event and is a last resort in an impaired patient-practice relationship. When trust has irretrievably broken down, it is in the patient’s interest, just as much as that of the practice, that they should find a new practice. An exception to this is on immediate removal on the grounds of violence e.g. when the Police are involved.

Removing other members of the household

In rare cases, however, because of the possible need to interact with a previously aggressive patient it may be necessary to terminate responsibility for other members of the family or the entire household. The prospect of treating patients where a relative who is no longer a patient of the practice by virtue of their unacceptable behaviour resides, or being regularly confronted by the removed patient, may make it too difficult for the practice to continue to look after the whole family. This is particularly likely where the patient has been removed because of violence or threatening behaviour and keeping the other family members could put dentists or their staff at risk.