FAILURE TO ATTEND/LATE CANCELLATION POLICY
Every year we lose valuable surgery time because of 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.
To avoid the cost of failed or late cancelled appointments being passed onto the rest of our patients, from 1 January 2024 we will charge (£50) for un-used time where a patient fails to attend or cancels without reasonable notice (less than 48 hours before the appointment).
Failing to attend an appointment for the first time will result in an SMS sent to your phone reminding you of our poliey and loss of your deposit. It is your responsibility to ensure that we are informed of any changes to your contact information. If patient fails to attend twice for serious reason, we leave discretion to remove the patient from our practice patient list.
Patients who are unable to make their appointment because of illness should, where possible, contact the practice as soon as they are aware that they cannot attend. If you are unsure whether you can make it to an appointment, please contact us early to discuss the matter rather than leaving it to the last minute. Failing to notify us before the appointment time will result in the loss of the deposit unless there are exceptional circumstances.
We understand that scenarios do occur, and discretion will be used if there is a good reason for the appointment being missed.
REMINDERS
SMS reminders are available for all appointments. If we have your contact information on file, we will always provide a reminder text 48 hours in advance of your appointment, It is your responsibility to check your phones (Home/ Work/Mobile if all are provided) for missed calls or answer phone messages and ensure that we are informed of any changes to your contact information.
Please note, telephone reminders are provided out of courtesy, not necessity. It is your responsibility to turn up on time for an appointment. Failure of the telephone reminder system for any reason is not sufficient reason for failing to attend or turning up too late for treatment.
