Appointment Management and Cancellation Policy

The business goal/mission of the practice to provide quality dental care (as affordable) reasonable costs to our patients, to achieve this we must use all clinical time effectively. We therefore have an appointment management and cancellation policy. Missed appointments cost the practice a significant amount in wasted time, resources, and equipment. Whilst these fees do not fully cover the losses incurred by missed appointments, we hope they emphasize the importance of keeping to booked appointments and allow us to partly cover our costs where appointments are not kept, which in turn helps us keep our prices as affordable as possible.

Management of appointments

We manage our clinical books to maximize flexibility in offering patients appointments at times that are convenient. When you book your appointment, you are holding a space on our calendar that is no longer available to our other patients.

We appreciate plans change and appointments may need to be amended, in order to be respectful of your fellow patients, please contact us as soon as you know you cannot attend a scheduled appointment, this can be done by calling us on 01326 312264 or emailing us at info@kimberleyparkdentist.co.uk

Reminders

We endeavor to send courtesy reminders (text message / emails) in the weeks and days leading to an appointment. The last of which will be 72hrs prior. These cannot, however, be guaranteed as this is an automated service which occasionally fails and we ask patients to note down any appointments at the time of booking and not to rely on reminders nearer the time.
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Patients must keep us updated of any changes to their contact details.A lack of reminder text/email will not be accepted as a reason for a missed appointment

Cancellation or delay of an appointment by the practice

We will only cancel or delay a patient’s appointment in unavoidable circumstances. In such cases, we will take the following steps:

• The patient will be contacted as soon as the practice is aware of the need to cancel or delay the appointment. We will explain the reason for the cancellation or delay
• At the time of contact, the patient will be offered a new appointment at the earliest time available
• If the patient is unable to commit to a new appointment during that contact, we will ask them to get in touch at a later time, when we will offer them a priority appointment
• If you have booked multiple appointments, e.g. Exam with dentist, and hygienist visit with therapist. If we send you a notification that one of your appointments had to be cancelled, it will specify which and you should attend the other appointments as usual. If for any reason you are unsure about your appointment status, please contact our helpful reception team.

Cancellation of an appointment by a patient

Patients are required to give at least 48hours’ notice to cancel a dental appointment. Cancellations can be made by the following methods.

• Phone call to 01326 312264, if unable to get through to our reception, please leave a voicemail detailing which appointment you need to amend and we will call back as soon as possible
• Email to info@kimberleyparkdentist.co.uk detailing the appointment and reason for cancellation
• Attend reception in person to rearrange
• We are a small team with a very large number of patients often needing to contact us, we accept that we may not always be contactable via   phone and ask that you email us as an alternative.

Missed appointment

• We require 48hrs notice to cancel a prebooked appointment
• Appointments cancelled with less than 48hr notice will incur the same fees as missed appointments

Late attendance

• Our appointments are booked for the required length of time to maximize efficiency and to enable us to keep our prices as low as possible for patients.
• Patients must be ready to be called into surgery at their appointment time, as such paperwork such as medical history should be completed either online via patient portal prior to the appointment, or by attending early to complete this at the practice.
• Patients requiring additional time or assistance to complete paperwork should account for this and appreciate there may be a short wait for a member of staff to be available to help.
• We ask patients to attend in good time for appointments, and account for unexpected delays such as traffic, parking, queues at reception or outstanding paperwork needing to be completed.
• If you are late to an appointment, we will assess if your treatment can be completed safely and effectively in the remaining time.
• Where we are unable to safely complete your treatment we will ask you to rebook. If this is the case then a missed appointment fee will apply/your deposit will be retained.
• Where treatment can be partially completed the booked treatment will need to be paid in full, and a further charge will apply for any treatment not able to be completed.

Failure to attend - charges

For Pay-as-you-Go patients:

• Missed hygienist/exam appointments will incur the full charge for the booked service
• Most treatment/emergency appointments will require a deposit prior to booking, which will be retained if the appointment is missed or cancelled at short notice. Where appointments are cancelled or moved with more than 48 hours notice this can be transferred or refunded.
• We reserve the right to ask patients who miss or cancel multiple appointments at short notice to pay the full cost of any future treatment up-front.
• All failure to attend charges must be settled within 14 days and prior to rebooking

For DPAS Essentials Plans:

• The DPAS essentials plan is designed to spread the cost of a set number of examination and hygiene visits, this applies whether or not these appointments are attended.
• Where an appointment is missed or cancelled at short notice we offer 2 options:
  
  1. The missed appointment can be forfeit and the patient may book their next appointment as per their plan schedule.
  
  2. A replacement appointment can be booked at our relevant Private fee, with payment required up front. NB the 10% essentials plan discount does not apply to these appointments.

Comprehensive Plans

• Our comprehensive plans aim to keep your dental treatment costs to a minimum, it does not have a direct equivalent in number of appointments.
• Missed appointments will incur a failure to attend charge at a set minute-rate in line with our current running costs
• FTA charges must be settled within 14 days and prior to booking any future appointments

NHS

• We do not make a charge for NHS patients for a late cancellation or missed appointments. However, given the current difficulty in accessing NHS dental care we operate a zero-tolerance policy on missed NHS appointments. If an NHS appointment is missed or not cancelled with good notice (48hrs) then we reserve the right to refuse future NHS care. You will have the option to continue your care as a private patient (See Website for price list), however, you may be asked to pay for appointments on booking and any late cancelations / missed private appointments will then be subject to a charge.

Children/Vulnerable adults

The above policies remain, however this will be documented on the patient file and repeated failure to bring Child/ vulnerable adult to their appointments without good reason, may need to be raised as child protection / vulnerable adult concern.  

Exceptional Circumstances

• It is our aim to telephone or write to patients after a missed appointment to understand the reason for non-attendance and to inform them about any fee or decision about their NHS dental care.
• We appreciate your understanding of our late cancellation policy in helping to run an efficient appointment system. We will always take exceptional circumstances into account if the unforeseen happens and on the rare occasion, you have the need to cancel an appointment at short notice.
• If you wish us to consider exceptional circumstances associated with a late cancellation simply write to us within 7 days of the appointment date, outlining these circumstances and enclosing any supporting evidence.

Any appeals about missed or cancelled appointment decisions, should be made in writing to the Practice Manager; Tom McCann.