Appointment Policy
APPOINTMENT POLICIES
Our appointment policies are in attempt to treat all patients equally and without
discrimination, as we understand that everyone’s work and personal
commitments are individually based. At the same time we kindly ask all patients
to respectfully understand that if an appointment is booked, we would be
allowed to charge the full fee for that appointment, to allow us to exist as a
dental practice and business.
FTA POLICY
• If a patient fails to arrive for any appointment booked, then the practice will retain the full fee paid towards that visit.
• The practice will ask the patient to pay a minimum fee of £75 per 15 minutes for the missed or late appointment, even if payment was not collected in advance.
• The full fee for the entire appointment or treatment cost (whichever is higher) that was planned to be carried out in that appointment would be charged to the patient.
LATE CANCELLATION POLICY OR
CHANGE OF TREATMENT/ PROCEDURE
•We require no less than 48 hours’ notice (from appointment time) to cancel or reschedule or change
any treatment or any appointment.
• Otherwise, the practice will retain the fee paid towards
the appointment or will ask the patient to pay a minimum fee of £75 per 15 minutes (whichever is higher) for the late cancelled appointment.
• Unless otherwise stated in any voucher or offer, if a patient arrives later than 10 mins for any 30 mins appointment or if a patient arrives later than the appointment time for a 15 mins or 20 mins appointment, then this would be regarded as a late arrival. The practice reserves the right to refuse any treatment or advice on account of the late arrival. The patient would not be entitled to part of an appointment time or procedure within any remaining time.
DEPOSIT COLLECTION POLICY
We collect our fees in advance depending on the length of the appointment and treatment, as we would like to ensure that we maintain a clear policy where we receive a fee for our services and surgery time.
• This in turn would allow us to meet our practice expenses for lost surgery time.
• The collection of fees in advance allows patients to be informed of the total charge for that visit and avoid any unexpected bills being charged to patients.
• There have been an increase in Credit/Debit card blockage by banks due to fraud checks or alerts. This sometimes prevents us from receiving our funds if we were to collect our fees after treatments/procedures.
FREE APPOINTMENTS
If a patient misses a Free of Charge appointment or an appointment which is included as part of an entire treatment plan (or similar) or telephone call for review purposes (given as a Gesture of Goodwill by the Practice to the Patient), then all further visits will be charged for to a minimum of £75/15 minutes, unless alternate arrangements are made with the Management.
UPDATE YOUR CONTACT DETAILS
• We would be most grateful if patients give us their
names (as it appears with their NHS GP), not nicknames or short form of patient names, their most contactable telephone and email details, along with their preferred methods of contact.
• In an event that patients do not return our numerous points of contact or messages, we would assume that
the patient does not wish to proceed with any further treatment, until the patients’ further contact. We would
attempt calling or texting or emailing the patient a total of TWO attempts, which we would frequently refer to
as a TWO point contact.
ABUSIVE BEHAVIOUR
ONLINE BOOKINGS
• Please book the correct appointment, and always check this when you receive your email receipt.
• We will not always assess all patient comments on online booking notes, but would instead ask patients to kindly look at our Fees Section to confirm patients have booked the right type of appointment.
• If we need to contact any patient, we will try calling and or texting twice. If we are unable to make contact or patients don’t return our calls, we reserve the right to cancel the appointment or proceed with what was booked.
• The full fee will be charged in an event that patients book the wrong appointment, even if we are unable to change the appointment type on short notice.
• All additional appointments are chargeable at the normal scale of fees.
CHILDREN AND ESCORTS
• We love children, and it is for this reason we feel they should not be left alone in our waiting room or at any risks to harm (of any sort).
• Kindly ensure someone takes care of children if they are in the waiting room.
• They cannot be in the surgery during the provision of patient care unless they themselves are the patients.
Our staff are unable to accept this responsibility of any children.
• We see a higher number of patients attempting to bring children along with them during their school holidays.
We are unable to allow this, based on a Risk Assessment Checklist.
• Escorts who accompany sedation patients should not wait in the waiting room.
• All escorts must be within the local vicinity of the practice and be able to return within 15 minutes of our contact to fetch patients.
DENTAL INSURANCE FORMS
• All insurance forms must be filled in, and all enquiries must be made within the respective appointment.
• All enquiries and our services out of the appointment time is chargeable additionally.
COPY OF RECORDS
We generally supply patients with a copy of the report of dental examinations and single tooth consultations. All additional services, reports and enquiries are chargeable. We ask all patients to make the request directly with the dentist at the time of the respective appointment. Our receptionists are here only to assist with the booking of appointments.
7 DAY CONTACT POLICY
• If we prescribe any treatment at any consultation visit, please contact us within 7 days (to book an appointment).
• Treatment is required to commence within 2 weeks from initial consultation.
• Alternately, new consultation fees would be applicable and we would assume that patients may decide not to pursue the prescribed care.
WAYS TO CONTACT US
a. Telephone: 0208 7727708
• Please leave a voicemail and we will get back to you within 24–48 hours if not within the same day.
• If we are closed during the banks holidays or weekend, then we would address your enquiry at the next working day.
b. Email: [email protected]
• We would respond based on a first come first served queuing system basis.
• If we are closed during the banks holidays or weekend, then we would address your enquiry at the next working day.