Introduction

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 GDPs 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.

Our Practice 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:

• Theft
• Threats or threatening behaviour
• Violence
• Excessive noise, e.g. recurrent loud or intrusive conversation or shouting
• Threatening or abusive language involving swearing or offensive remarks
• Derogatory racial or sexual remarks or innuendos
• Malicious allegations relating to members of staff, other patients or visitors
• Taking alcohol or drugs on practice premises
• Drug dealing on practice premises
• Wilful damage to practice property
• Persistent or unrealistic demands that cause stress to the staff.

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

The Legal Position

As a responsible employer, the Practice has a duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of staff under the Health & Safety at Work Act. This includes a risk assessment of violence towards staff and taking steps to mitigate this under the Management of Health and Safety at

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, the practice will also undertake the following measures to ensure a safe work environment:

• Carry our risk assessments to assess and review the duties of employees, identifying any “at risk” situations and taking appropriate steps to reduce or remove the risk to employees, particularly if they are working alone.
• Assess and review the layout of the premises to reduce the risk to employees where physically possible.
• Assess and review the provision of personal safety equipment, such as alarms.
• Develop surgery policies, procedures and guidelines for dealing with physical and verbal abuse.
• Provide support and counselling for victims, or refer to suitably qualified health professionals.
• Make employees aware of risks and ensure employee involvement in suitable training courses.
• Record any incidents on a Significant Event form and take any remedial action to ensure similar incidents are prevented in future.

Removal From The Practice List

The removal of patients from our list is an exceptional and rare event and is a last resort in an impaired patient-practice relationship. We value and respect good patient-dentist relationships based on mutual respect and trust. When trust has irretrievably broken down, the practice will consider all factors before removing a patient from their list, and communicate to them that it is in the patient’s best interest that they should find a new practice. An exception to this is in the case of immediate removal on the grounds of abuse or violence e.g. when the Police are involved.