Failed to Attend and Late Cancellation Appointment 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. It also cost the surgery £240.00 per hour.

A patient who fails to attend their appointment or cancel with less than 24 hours’ notice, will be sent a letter (including this policy), warning them that they will be removed from our patient list. In the event that a further appointment is issued or cancelled at short notice, we may withdraw treatment at this practice.

Discretion will be used if there is a good reason for the appointment being missed.

As with all medical facilities, we aim to see our patients on time but due to the nature of the health care, this is not always possible. However, if a patient turns up late for their appointment so that treatment cannot be carried out, this will be regarded as failing to attend.

Failed to Attend Charges
To cover the surgery running costs of a failed appointment with the dentist there will be a charge of £4.00 per minute (for example, a missed 30-minute appointment will incur a charge of £120.00)

To cover the surgery running cost of a failed appointment with the hygienist as above £1.50 per minute (for example, a missed 30 minute appointment will incur a charge of £45.00)

Late cancellation charges – 24hrs notice
Charges will be made if we cannot fill the appointment time, if you need to cancel an appointment, please give us +24 hours’ notice (this excludes weekend days and bank holidays).

Courtesy Text Reminder and Email Reminder automated system
Text and email reminders are available for all appointments. All text messages sent by our system are logged when successfully sent. It is your responsibility to check your text and email messages and to ensure that we are informed of any changes to your mobile phone number or email address. We will assume that you have received your reminder if it has been logged as successfully sent.

Please note, text messages and email are sent out of courtesy, not necessity. It is your responsibility to turn up on time for an appointment. Failure of the text messaging system for any reason is not sufficient reason for failing to attend or turning up too late for treatment.