Rayner Dental Practice Missed and Failed to Attend Policy
The Missed Appointment Policy is in place at the practice to ensure a consistent, fair and transparent process is undertaken when a patient misses an appointment. This policy is made clear to everybody on booking and is available in our practice leaflet and on our website.
Cancellations
Although we understand that things happen, and schedules do change we ask that you provide us with at least 24 hours’ notice for any appointment changes. Missed appointments prevent us from scheduling another patient that could benefit from our services. We schedule individual time with each patient to allow us to deliver the quality, personal care that every patient deserves.
We do offer a text and email reminder service 48hrs prior to your appointment. If you would like to arrange this then please ask our reception team who will be happy to set this up for you. However, do not rely on these reminders from us as we cannot guarantee that they will always get to you! It is ultimately your responsibility to note and attend the time of your appointment.
If you are not able to attend your appointment, please give us at least 24 hours’ notice so that we can allocate the time to someone else. The practice considers any appointment to be ‘missed’ where the patient fails to attend or fails to provide at least 24 hours’ notice on cancellation of an appointment.
For appointments longer than 60 minutes we request that you give us as much notice as possible, preferably 48 hours.
Failure to Attend/Late Arrival
New patients that fail to attend will not be offered another appointment. If you are 5 minutes later than your allocated appointment, it is classified as a fail to attend.
You are advised if you fail to attend 2 appointments in a row or two appointments in a year, we will no long offer you treatment.
If you fail to visit the practice for 3 years or over, your place will be allocated to somebody else due to the high demand for NHS spaces. It is your responsibility to keep at track of when you need to come to avoid losing your space.
If you are being seen on an independent basis and the appointment is less than 30minues,the assessment charge or deposit is used to cover the lost surgery time. It cannot be refunded unless part of the cancelled surgery time is used by another patient. Cancellation charges will then be reduced accordingly.
Appeals
Any appeals about missed or cancelled appointment should be made in writing to the practice addressed to the practice manager Christine Greenwood.
We understand that life does not run as smoothly as we all wish, and genuine issues occur. We do apply common sense to all our policies, but please respect us so that we can be fair to everyone. Any abuse to other patients or staff members will not be tolerated.
