Failed to Attend Policy

Every year we lose valuable surgery time due to patients failing to attend their appointments or cancelling at short notice.

This makes it more difficult for us to accommodate our patients in need of urgent treatment, for existing patients to book appointments and for new patients to register here. It also costs the practice a considerable amount of money.

We aim to see our patients on time but due to the nature of health care it is not always possible. However, if a patient turns up late for their appointment so that treatment cannot be carried out, this may be regarded as failing to attend. Late arrivals do impact on other patients.

New Patients

New patients, who fail to attend their first appointment or cancel at short notice, will no longer be offered an appointment at this practice as an NHS patient and should they wish to book a further appointment they will have to register on a private basis and pay a deposit in advance.

Cancelled appointments

Patients are requested to give at least 24 hours’ notice to cancel a dental appointment.

Missed appointment policy

1. If two check-up appointments are missed within an 18 months period, we will refuse to book you another check-up appointment.
2. If two appointments are cancelled within 24hours (Short Notice Cancellations) within an 18 month period, we will refuse to book you another check-up appointment.
3. If more than one appointment is missed or late cancellation during the same course of treatment. We reserve the right to refuse you from booking another appointment. If the patient then makes contact regarding completing the open course of treatment please review with dentist.

Private Treatments

Patients who fail appointments for private treatment or cancel at short notice will be charged, via a deduction from their deposit according to the surgery time lost at the dentist’s discretion.

We operate a fair policy – if there are uncontrollable mitigating circumstances which have resulted in patients missing appointments, we will take this into consideration. In that instance the patient must put their mitigating circumstances in writing to the Practice Manager.