Standard Terms of Care & Complaints Policy

Where to find information about us and our services

• You can find everything you need to know about us, Dermatology Consulting Limited (we, us, our), and our services on our website (www.dermatologyconsulting.co.uk), in the materials we provide to you and otherwise from the clinician who treats you.
• We provide expert skincare advice and treatment services.
• We confirm all key information to you in writing before any treatment is commenced.
• If you have been referred to us from your GP or other healthcare provider, our services are intended to work alongside the medical advice already provided to you, and we do not replace or supersede any medical advice previously given to you that is outside our own medical specialisms.

Your contract with us

• When you attend an appointment with us, or otherwise are provided advice or a treatment by us, you will have a legal relationship with us (the contract).
• Each contract is made up of the information provided by us in your appointment letter, and these Terms.
• To the extent of any conflict between the information in your appointment letter and these Terms, the information in your appointment letter shall prevail.
• We provide our services:
  • with reasonable skill and care;
  • in accordance with applicable law and regulation;
  • in accordance with the appointment letter we have provided to you; and
  • in accordance with these Terms.

• Your contract with us starts when we send the appointment letter to you, and comes to an end when your appointments or treatments with us have finished.

Sometimes we refuse to provide services

• Sometimes we may not be able to provide a service to you, for example, because a particular clinician is unavailable, because we can’t verify your age (where the service is age-restricted), or if we consider that it is not in your clinical interests to provide the service. When this happens, we let you know as soon as possible and either refund any sums you have paid for that service or agree an alternative approach with you.

Payments

• Payments for appointments and services are due as set out in your appointment letter.
• If we’re unable to collect any payment you owe us we charge interest on the overdue amount at the rate of 5% a year above the Bank of England base rate from time to time. This interest accrues on a daily basis from the due date until the date of actual payment of the overdue amount, whether before or after judgment. You pay us the interest together with any overdue amount.

We pass on increases in VAT

• If the rate of VAT changes between the date of your appointment letter and the date we supply the relevant service, we adjust the rate of VAT that you pay, unless you have already paid in full before the change in the rate of VAT takes effect.

We’re not responsible for delays outside our control

• If we are unable to provide a service due to an event outside our control, we contact you as soon as possible to let you know and do what we can to reduce the delay. As long as we do this, we won’t compensate you for the delay, but if the delay is likely to be substantial you can contact us using the contact details below to end the contract and receive a refund for any services you have paid for in advance, but not received, less reasonable costs we have already incurred:
  • email: [email protected]
  • telephone: 01892 517620
  • fax: 01892 517931

• post: Dermatology Consulting, 6 Frant Road, Tunbridge Wells, TN2 5SE

You’re responsible for information you provide to us

• Due to the nature of the services which we provide, it is essential that you provide accurate and up to date information when we request it. This is especially important in relation to information that helps us assess what services and treatments are clinically appropriate for you, and information that helps us give all the necessary advice for you to be able to give informed consent for any treatment. That information can include information about your medical history (both in terms of your physical and mental health), the current state of your physical and mental health and any medication or other treatments you are currently receiving, and information about your working life (if any) and your home/social life, including any important events you wish to attend.

Your right to change your mind

• If you no longer wish to proceed with a treatment discussed, or attend an appointment, please let us know as soon as possible.
• Once we have sent you a letter confirming an appointment (including an appointment for a treatment), please let us know as soon as possible if you need to cancel or change the appointment. If you need to cancel an appointment, the following applies:
  • for regular appointments, if you notify us at least 24 hours before the appointment of the need to cancel the appointment we will refund the £50 deposit which you have paid (if you notify us within 24 hours of the appointment, we will retain the deposit paid); and
  • for follow-up appointments and procedures, if you notify us at least 48 hours before of the need to cancel the appointment there will be no charge but if you notify us within 48 hours you may incur a cancellation fee of 50% of the consultation or procedure booked.

How we refund you

• If you are entitled to a refund, we will refund you by the method you used for payment.

You have rights if you feel that there is something wrong with the service we have provided to you, or if you would like to complain about anything

• If you think there is something wrong with a service we have provided, please contact us at the details set out above in clause 6. We honour our legal duty to provide you with services that are as described to you on our website and other materials provided by us, and that meet all the requirements imposed by law.
• You can ask us to repeat a service if it’s not carried out with reasonable care and skill, or get a refund if we can’t provide the service to this standard.
• Our complaints policy is available on request.

 We can change services and the contract

• We can change or delay the provision of a service we provide:
  • to reflect changes in relevant laws and regulatory requirements; and
  • to make minor technical adjustments and improvements, without causing a negative impact on the service or changing the risks and benefits of any treatment.
  • If we want to make any other change to a service which we have agreed to provide to you, or if a change could affect the risks and benefits of any treatment,  we will discuss this with you in advance and agree the appropriate next steps, and obtain your updated consent to treatment.

We can end our contract with you

• We can end our contract with you for a service, and cancel any outstanding services, appointment and treatments, if:
  • you don’t make any payment to us when it’s due and you still don’t make payment within 3 days of our reminding you that payment is due;
  • you don’t, within a reasonable time of us asking for it, provide us with information or cooperation that we need to provide the service, for example, if you are unable to attend appointments at the times we have available; or
  • we consider that it is not in your clinical interests to provide the service.

 We use your personal data as set out in our Privacy Notice

• We respect your privacy and treat your information as confidential, except where disclosure is required by law.
• How we use any personal data you give us is set out in our Privacy Notice (see https://www.dermatologyconsulting.co.uk/privacy).

Rights in our brand and materials

• All content, including text, graphics, images, and logos in materials provided by us to you is protected by intellectual property rights and may not be reproduced or distributed without our permission.

 If you wish to raise a problem with us

• Please contact us at the details shown above and we will do our best to resolve any problems you have with us or our services. If we are not able to resolve your complaint ourselves, we will let you know what other avenues are available.

Other important terms apply to the contract

• We can transfer our contract with you, so that a different organisation is responsible for supplying your service. We’ll tell you in writing if this happens and we’ll ensure that the transfer won’t affect your rights under the contract.
• Due to the personal nature of our services, you cannot transfer your contract with us to someone else.
• Nobody else has any rights under the contract. The contract is between you and us. Nobody else can enforce it.
• If a court invalidates some of the contract, the rest of it will still apply. If a court or other authority decides that some of these terms are unlawful, the rest will continue to apply.
• Even if we delay in enforcing the contract, we can still enforce it later. We might not immediately chase you for not doing something (like paying) or for doing something you’re not allowed to, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do it later.

DERMATOLOGY CONSULTING COMPLAINTS POLICY

You have rights if you feel that there is something wrong with the service we have provided to you, or if you would like to complain about anything.

• We take all complaints and expressions of dissatisfaction very seriously, both in terms of resolving a particular patient’s concerns, and for the purposes of continually improving all aspects of our service.
• If you do wish to raise a complaint about the doctors, or any member of staff at Dermatology Consulting Clinic, or the facilities there, then you can do so by the following means:
  • In writing – wherever possible we kindly ask that you summarise a complaint in writing and email or post it to [email protected] or Practice Manager, Dermatology Consulting, 6 Frant Road, Tunbridge Wells, TN2 5SE.
  • By telephone or in person – if you would prefer to speak to someone about your complaint then please call 01892 517620 and ask to speak to the Practice Manager.

• Once you have made a complaint, we will acknowledge safe receipt as soon as possible and within 3 working days. If you have not received an acknowledgment by then, please do call so that we can work together to make sure your complaint has arrived with us safely.
• Once we receive your complaint, we will keep the correspondence on a confidential file, separate from your medical records. We will review your medical and any other relevant records and carry out any investigations that may be necessary. If we need any clarification or information from you then we will endeavour to seek it as soon as possible. Wherever possible we will respond substantively to your complaint within 21 working days of the complaint arriving with us. If for any reason it is not possible to respond within that timeframe, then within that 21 working days we will write to you with an update and to provide an estimated date for the response.
• If your care with us has been funded by a private health insurer, you may also have the ability to make your complaint through their own complaints process.
• There can be situations where your complaint is partly or entirely about something that we were not responsible for. Examples could include a complaint about an aspect of your care that was provided by another hospital, clinic or testing service, or about the funding of your care. In those situations, it may be necessary for you to raise those complaints with the other entity, such as a hospital or private health insurer, as we would not be permitted to respond to complaints on their behalf. If we believe that any aspect of your complaint should be re-directed to someone else to consider, we will let you know as soon as practicable.
•  If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of the investigation you can contact the Care Quality Commission (cqc.org.uk, [email protected], 03000 616161).