The General Dental Services, Personal Dental Services and Abolition of the Dental Practice Board Transitional and Consequential Provisions Order 2006

Complaints relating to personal dental services made after 31st March 2006

22.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2), the complaints procedure established and operated by a succeeding contractor—

(a) under the terms of its personal dental services agreement which gives effect to paragraph 47 of Schedule 3 to the PDS Agreements Regulations; or

(b) under the terms of its general dental services contract which gives effect to paragraph 47 of Schedule 3 to the GDS Contracts Regulations,

shall apply to any complaint which a patient or former patient of the relevant pilot scheme provider to whom it is a succeeding contractor could have made (but did not make) on or before 31st March 2006 under the pilot scheme agreement as it applies to complaints made by a patient or former patient of the succeeding contractor in relation to any matter reasonably connected with the provision of services under the agreement or, as the case may be, the contract.

(2) In a case where there is no succeeding contractor, the complaint must be investigated by the Primary Care Trust in whose area the personal dental services were provided.

(3) Where a complaint falls to be investigated by a Primary Care Trust as a consequence of paragraph (2), the investigation shall be carried out in accordance with the National Health Service (Complaints) Regulations 2004.