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Care Opinion

Disgraceful Emergency Dental Services

Posted By naff123

"Disgraceful Emergency Dental Services"

About: Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust

(as the patient),

I am in extreme pain about 9 out of 10 on the scale so proceeded to phone the emergency Dentaline at about 6. 10 pm to find the line was engaged after about 20-30 attempts I gave up about 8pm tried my best to dose up and get through the pain. But the pain has been getting significantly worse so decide to try them again about 9. 30pm to get through to somebody who proceeds to triage my issues acknowledges that it is a bad situation for me, to only then tell me I cannot be seen and in her own words "had I bothered to call an hour ago I would of got an appointment".

Now I don't know how the staff of Dentaline was taught to interact with patients but I would never be so rude! She cut me off mid sentence, told me it's tough I have to wait now 24 hours or so till tomorrow and then hung up on me!

Now I am in extreme pain here I am entitled to treatment from the NHS but it seems to me that Dentaline are doing everything possible to make sure this does not happen.

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Responses

Response from Karen Edmunds, Head of Patient Experience and Public Engagement, Engagement Team, Kent Community Health NHS Trust 9 years ago
Karen Edmunds
Head of Patient Experience and Public Engagement, Engagement Team,
Kent Community Health NHS Trust

Support our services to listen to patients and families, learn from their experiences and make changes to improve the quality of care.

Submitted on 31/12/2014 at 10:07
Published on Care Opinion at 10:23

We are very sorry to hear about the experience you had when trying to get an urgent appointment yesterday evening. The Dental line is run by Kent Community Health NHS Trust in office hours - 8am to 5pm, excluding Bank Holidays, but at other times (after 5pm and weekends) it is run by Medway Community Healthcare. Therefore when you initially tried to get through it was at a time the service is operated by Medway, and it was one of Medway's team who dealt with your call. If you want them to look into what happened and respond please contact them:

Customer Care Manager

Medway Community Healthcare

MCH House, 21 Bailey Drive

Gillingham Business Park,

Gillingham, Kent ME8 0WG

Tel: 01634 334650

Email: medwaycustomercare@nhs.net

We hope you get the appointment you need soon.

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