Missed Appointments Policy

In order to manage our appointment system effectively, patients must attend their appointments.

Due to the large number of people who make appointments but fail to attend or fail to give adequate advance (minimum 24 hours) notice when cancelling their scheduled appointments, it has become necessary to inform all patients of our Missed Appointment Policy (MAP) for Failed Attendances.

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Failing to attend appointments waste the clinic’s very limited time and hinder other patients who are trying to make an appointment. Patients who wish to cancel dental appointments must do so a minimum of 24 hours in advance of their scheduled appointment so that slot could be reallocated to a different patient who may need urgent dental care.

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For this reason, it is our policy to request deposits and make a charge if a minimum of 24 hours’ notice of cancellation or amendment is given. When booking your appointment, we will normally seek a deposit from you, payment of which is your confirmation of your commitment to attend your appointment. Our deposits are normally fully refundable providing sufficient (e.g. 24 hours) notice of cancellation is given (see below) and will be set at the following levels:
 

• Examinations and other appointments of less than an hour: £10

• Appointments of more than one hour: £20

• Same day Emergency Appointments: £20
   

If a patient has missed more than 3 appointments, the practice will no longer be seeing a such patient. An appointment is considered to have been “failed attendance” if any of the following occur:
 

• the patient fails to show up for the appointment,

• the patient appears more than 20 minutes late for a scheduled appointment, or

• the patient calls to cancel or to amend an appointment with less than 24 hours’ notice.
   

If less notice is given without a valid excuse, the appointment will be considered to have been Failed Attendance and the deposit will not be refunded.