FAILURE TO ATTEND and CANCELLATION POLICY
The Dental Centre Oakdale aims to provide outstanding care for patients, in an efficient manner.
To ensure this, we employ a necessary Failure to Attend and Cancellation Policy to ensure patients have access to care, with minimal delay. By not attending an appointment, you waste valuable time, which could be offered to patients awaiting treatment or who may be in pain.
Our goal in communicating this Failed to Attend and Cancellation Policy is to avoid any extra charges being passed on to the patient.
We strive to accommodate the appointment needs of our patients and make every effort to provide emergency dental care, where needed, at short notice.
To keep our prices at a reasonable level, it is necessary for the fixed running costs of the practice to be met. This requires dentists and hygienists are operating at maximum efficiency. For this reason, we have a failure to attend policy.
Policy for Failure to Attend, Private and Plan Patients
If a patient has difficulty in attending pre-booked appointments, we suggest that they contact The Dental Centre Oakdale, either by telephone or email, giving 2 working days’ notice. We will try to offer you the nearest available appointment depending on availability.
When an appointment is scheduled for a patient, we reserve appropriate surgery time for that treatment. As you can appreciate, surgery time is valuable to patients and costly to the practice.
From the 1st of December 2023, failure to attend an appointment may result in a charge of £2 for each minute of the missed appointment (20 min apt = £40 charge).
To book further appointments with a dentist/hygienist where treatment is necessary, after initial examination, The Dental Centre Oakdale reserves the right to request a reservation deposit for Private and Membership Plan appointments. This fee is proportionate to the length of the appointment booked, calculated at £2 for each minute reserved. The fee will be deductible from the total cost of the treatment. If your treatment involves dental laboratory work, we may ask for a minimum of 50% deposit for Private and Membership Plan appointments with a dentist, which will be forfeited in the event of failure to attend, as outlined above. Failure to give appropriate notice of cancellation will result in a Failed Appointment Fee, meaning that the deposit for your appointment reservation will become non-refundable. This fee will be used to cover the cost of the surgery time wasted. You will also need to pay any other additional fees incurred if the reservation deposit doesn’t cover all laboratory costs. The final decision is at the discretion of the Practice owner.
If more than 2 appointments are missed, future appointments for private patients may not be offered.
It is understandable that sometimes cancellations cannot be helped due to emergencies, and we will endeavour to take all valid circumstances into account.
As clinical time has been reserved exclusively for you, all our registered private patients who attend a hygienist appointment will need to pay a reservation deposit which is half of the hygienist fee. If you need to change the appointment, we require at least 2 working days’ notice. A deposit will not be refunded without the required notice. If this hygienist appointment is cancelled at short notice (less than 48h notice) or missed, then this payment will be lost, and a new fee will need to be paid before a new appointment can be booked.
For a Membership Plan member patient, if a hygienist or dental check-up appointment is missed, no charge will apply and where appropriate, a second chance for re-booking will be offered to meet that year’s Membership Plan benefits. However, should any subsequent hygienist or dental check-up appointments be missed, this appointment will be forfeited.
Patients who are not registered as regular dental patients will be required to pay the full fee for a dental check-up or emergency dental appointment prior to seeing the dentist and the full hygienist appointment fee, prior to seeing the hygienist. We regret that treatment will only be given to patients with up-to-date accounts. If a new patient fails to attend their 1st appointment, we reserve the right to refuse further appointments at the practice and the full fee, paid in advance, will be non-refundable.
Patients with any outstanding fees may not be seen for a further appointment until the balance is paid in full.
If, for any reason, you decide that you no longer wish to continue a planned treatment at The Dental Centre Oakdale, please be aware that you will be charged for any treatment completed by the clinician or laboratory technician.
Treatment plans are estimates and we will endeavour to inform you of any changes that occur once a treatment plan has started. Additional procedures may be carried out, with your consent, if essential and in your best interest. Such additional procedures may incur extra cost.
Estimates are valid for three months from the date of the treatment plan.
Short notice cancellation & late arrival
We understand that some patients travel long distances to get to the practice, and in some cases being late for appointments can be unavoidable. Patients arriving more than 10 minutes late for a dentist, therapist or hygienist appointment may result in the appointment being rescheduled as it results in the dentist/hygienist/therapist running late for other patients.
Cancelling at short notice makes it very difficult to offer your appointment to other patients in need. The Dental Centre Oakdale reserves the right to remove any patient who has a poor attendance or short notice cancellation history.
Due to the uncertainty of offering personalised healthcare treatment, occasionally our appointments can over-run. The team at The Dental Centre Oakdale recognise the value of your time and work hard to ensure your appointment is punctual. However, in circumstances beyond our control, The Dental Centre Oakdale may be required to cancel or reschedule appointments.
Cancelling on behalf of someone else
Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of clinical confidentiality. If you are cancelling on behalf of someone else, we must know that you have their permission to do so, unless they are incapable (because of physical and mental illness) or you are the parent/family member or carer for the patient. Our reception staff can help you with this consent issue.
Text and email appointment reminders
Text and email reminders are provided out of courtesy, not necessity. It is your responsibility to turn up on time for your appointment.
Please note that, although we normally send email and/or text message reminders prior to appointments, the successful delivery of these relies on our text provider, your mobile network provider and your phone and, therefore, cannot be guaranteed. You should not rely on emails or text messages as the sole reminder for your appointment. We will not be responsible for any appointments missed because of non- delivery of text message reminders, regardless of the reasons for its failure.
For any patient wishing to dispute the policy due to a situation out of your control we request something is put in writing to the Practice Manager either at joannal.thedentalcentre@aol.com or The Dental Centre Oakdale, The Square, Oakdale, Blackwood, Caerphilly, NP12 0LR.
Personal Details
It is very important that you give a full medical history and details of any medication you take. Should these change in any way, it is very important for you to tell your dentist. It is the patient’s responsibility to inform the practice of any changes to either your personal details and/or your medical history.
Guarantee
At The Dental Centre Oakdale we offer a like for like 12 months guarantee for fillings, and crown and bridgework, provided that the following conditions are met:
- The patient has fully paid for the treatment and does not owe the practice any money for the treatment received.
- The restorations have not been damaged because of an accident, trauma or excessive grinding.
- The patient has followed all post-treatment maintenance recommendations made by your dentist.
- The patient has attended routine examinations every 6 months.
Some treatments may have a guarantee of less than 1 year, and in this case, you will be informed by your dentist.
Zero Tolerance Policy
The Dental Centre Oakdale has a duty to provide a safe and secure environment for staff and patients. Unacceptable behaviour will not be tolerated at the Dental Centre Oakdale. Should such behaviour happen, decisive action will be taken. Violent or threatening behaviour will be reported to the Police.
Examples of unacceptable behaviour are:
- Verbal abuse which includes shouting, using foul language both face to face or over the phone
- Physical violence or threats
- Racial abuse or sexual harassment
- Persistent or unrealistic demands that cause stress to our staff
- Causing damage to the practice
- Theft
The Dental Centre Oakdale reserves the right to request clients who repeatedly cancel appointments at short notice, fail to attend, arrive late or are rude/abusive to find another service provider.