SpaDental Policy: Appointment Cancellation and Failure to Attend

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Key Facts

• Please respect the time you have reserved for an appointment.
• We ask you to give at least 24 hours advance notice if you need to cancel or re-schedule an appointment.
• We advise patients on our standby list of vacant slots, so let us know if you can’t attend.

Contact us

Notes for Private Patients

• Please notify the practice at least 24 hours in advance of the scheduled appointment if you cannot attend.
• Use the online ‘contact us’ form.
• SpaDental contacts patients who fail to attend an appointment and charges per minute when:
  • a patient fails to attend a booked appointment
  • a dependant is not brought to their appointment
  • the appointment is cancelled or re-scheduled within the 24 hour period before the scheduled appointment
• If a patient fails to attend an appointment or cancels without 24 hours notice twice, the patient may be informed that they no longer have access to treatment, including emergency treatment, at the practice.

Notes for NHS Patients

• SpaDental will remove patients from the practice’s NHS list for non-attendance.
• Patients who have failed to attend one appointment are given a warning. Failure to attend the second appointment means that the patient cannot book any further appointments with the practice, including emergency appointments.
• SpaDental practices that provide NHS treatment all have an extensive patient waiting list. We aim to schedule valuable clinical time to benefit all patients.

SpaDental Appointment Cancellation Policy

Aim: SpaDental aims to  use clinical time effectively to provide quality dental care to our patients. To support this aim, we have procedures in place to help patients manage their appointments and a policy to follow when a patient fails to attend.

Management of appointments

To help our patients make or reschedule appointments easily, our booking system minimises the length of time people have to wait and enables patients to access services at a time that suits them. Moreover, patients can make or reschedule appointments via the website (preferred), by email or by phoning the practice.

Reminders

According to patient preference, we send email and text reminders to patients 7 days before an appointment, followed by a reminder 48 hours before. Patients are requested to inform the practice of any changes to their contact details.

Cancellation or delay of an appointment by the practice

We only cancel or delay a patient’s appointment in unavoidable circumstances, such as an unplanned staff absence. If it is necessary, 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

Cancelling an appointment

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

Cancellations should be made by:

• Calling and speaking directly to a receptionist, or
• Via the website form on the ‘Contact Us’ page (please don’t leave messages on social media).

Late cancellations are a missed opportunity for another patient to attend during the time set aside. As we require payment prior to an appointment to secure the clinical time, we refund when the 24 hour cancellation period is met, or use it to secure a new appointment.

• We invite patients to sign up for ‘standby’ appointments here

Failure to attend an appointment

Failure to attend an appointment, or late notification, represents a cost to the practice.

We charge all private patients a fee for missed appointments and late cancellations. The fee is based on the length of the appointment and can be found in the private fees list.

It is our aim to telephone or write to patients after a missed appointment to understand the reason for non-attendance. We aim to communicate clearly with patients, giving clear information about fees, and decisions about further dental care. We understand that late cancellations are sometimes unavoidable due to illness or emergencies and we will give individual consideration in exceptional circumstances.

Any appeals about missed or cancelled appointment decisions by a patient should be made in writing to the Practice Manager.

How to avoid missing an appointment

It is difficult to remember appointments booked some time in advance. Therefore:

• Inform your practice of any changes to your contact information (mobile  phone or email in particular) as we try to send helpful reminders prior to an appointment.
• Make a note of the date and time as soon as you book.
  • On a paper calendar, use pen, colour code as important, and write a reminder one day and three days before,
  • Ensure alerts on an electronic calendar are set, and/or
  • Ask a family member for a reminder.
• The weekend before a holiday, check your calendar to see if you have any bookings you have forgotten to cancel.
• Please contact us if you receive a reminder that you think is incorrect, so we can check.

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