practice policies

Below is a list of some of our main policies that relate to our most common interactions with patients.

Missed Appointments / Late Attendance/ Short Notice Cancellations

We aim to provide a service that is fair to both patients and the practice. As a business we need to ensure practice overheads are met, and whilst we provide a healthcare based service we are a private business that requires we remain financially viable. There are no government-owned NHS general dental practices in the UK.

We ask patients to provide at least 2 business days notice for any changes to their appointments, as this allows us to offer the appointment slot to other patients.

Our NHS contractual obligations mean we cannot charge patients for missed NHS appointments, short notice cancellations or late attendance. We are only able to refuse future appointments. This is clearly a last resort and not the steps we like to take for every cancelled appointment. These “white spaces” in the appointment diary are not paid for by the NHS, so it is incumbent upon all NHS registered patients to be mindful when cancelling or missing appointments.

For Private or Denplan registered patients, we do charge for missed appointments as the appointments are often highly in demand and vital to subsidising any lost clinical time for NHS services.

Our missed appointment or short notice cancellation treatment appointment fee is a minimum £25 but may be more for treatments. In this case it will be a minimum of 10%.

For appointments such as examinations, hygienist appointments, the whole appointment fee may be forfeit.

We do accept that certain events do happen that make it difficult or impossible to attend scheduled appointments, and we will consider individual circumstances, but we cannot provide allowances to all patients at all times.

For COVID-19 related cancellations, we require proof in the form of trace and trace notifications and NHS COVID positive test result messages.

Late Arrivals and Waiting To Be Seen

There are times when patients arrive late for appointments or have to wait to be seen. We again appreciate that the journey to an appointment can be delayed due to a number of reasons - such as traffic, roadworks or parking considerations etc. A couple of minutes is generally manageable, but being 5 - 10 minutes late can make a serious impact on the day. Especially when an appointment may only be 15 minutes in duration.

We do not like to rush treatments and appointments, and most reasonable people would want their healthcare to be thorough and complete. Arriving late for an appointment makes it difficult to perform the requirements of the appointment. We do not want to rush treatment as this can have negative consequences to patient health and compromise the delivery of work.

The late arrival can mean the next appointment is also seen late which has a knock-on effect throughout the clinical session.

The impact of running into non-clinical times such as lunchtime or the end of the day also affects the mental and physical wellbeing of our staff and clinicians. We all work in difficult situations, providing support to anxious and nervous patients as well technically demanding work. The addition of COVID-19 protocols and precautions have also made it more difficult to work in the clinical environment. The need to take a suitable break, eat, hydrate and take care of personal matters during the day is important to all of us and important in maintaining a healthy workforce. Patients are often unaware of the demands of the rest of the day, and we are all guilty of only being aware of our own needs at times, so our policies are in place to ensure that the wellbeing of our staff is looked over.

For the patients waiting to be seen, we again appreciate and respect the time patients have given out of their schedules, and there may be times when we do run late due to the reasons mentioned above, but it may also be due to other reasons.

The clinical treatment we provide is generally predictable and the time to provide treatments generally known, but sometimes the unexpected does happen. A deep filling can become a root canal, the local anaesthetic takes a little longer to work, an extraction can be more demanding than it appeared on the x-ray. Our treatments may run late. When this happens we try to manage the situation as best as possible, but what do not do, is stop right there and tell the patient that their time is up and they need to leave. Sometimes we get an emergency appointment, where we do need to give a little extra time, and I am sure if any of our patients were in this position, they would appreciate us taking the time to help them.

Deposits And Pre-Payment For Appointments

For certain appointments, we do take deposits or prepayment for appointments. This is required for a few reasons, but primarily to secure appointment times for patients that are in demand - i.e after work hours.

Certain treatments and appointments are very popular, and patients have to wait a long time to be seen. Our hygienist service is an example of such a service. Hygienist appointments especially post covid are particularly difficult to book as they often involve the generation of aerosol (AGP) during the cleaning process. For back to back AGP appointments, we require the allocation of clinical rooms which increases our operating cost, as pre covid we would have been able to allocate that room for other appointments and services.

Unfortunately, the requirement of the deposit which is non-refundable if cancelled without appropriate notice is often a suitable motivator for patients to attend. For every patient who attends diligently for their appointments, we have patients who cancel last minute because they do not feel up to it. Patients can be apprehensive about appointments and develop a fear of the appointment, which whilst understandable, makes it difficult to run a business on.

At this stage, we would appreciate patient understanding on the matter and to comply with deposit requests if they wish to book the appointment.

If patients do not wish to pay a deposit to book an appointment when requested, we will not be able to book the appointment in advance, and they would then need to check regularly to see if we have an appointment available on the day they wish to attend.

For NHS examinations, we are not allowed to take deposits for the appointment. However, we are allowed to take payment in advance for any treatment appointments. If a patient misses an appointment or cancels on short notice then we do have the right to refuse further appointments on the NHS. In these circumstances, we will return any deposit taken for NHS treatment.

Rude and Abusive Behaviour & Language

We operate a zero-tolerance policy for patients who display behaviour and language that is unacceptable to our staff.

This policy applies to interactions in person, on the phone and online.

Our staff - which is clinical and non-clinical work to provide the best service we can. This can, unfortunately, mean that at times we do not meet the needs of some of our patients.

Privacy laws at times make it prohibitive to discuss matters and reasons in full. This can be frustrating for both parties, but when we are held legally responsible, we must endeavour to uphold these legal requirements.

Appointments are limited, and whilst we try and deal with every emergency appointment promptly, we cannot always accommodate this as quickly as patients would like.

Patients in pain and discomfort, who haven’t slept well for a few days, or are intense pain may not be their usual selves, which we understand, but our team will always try to help. Intimidation tactics are also unacceptable.

Actions and behaviours such as shouting, pointing at them, using foul and abusive language - regardless of if it is directed at them are not acceptable to our team. The receptionists, nurses and dentists all form part of this team, and we expect patients to behave the same with all members of our team. Too often, we find patients can be rude, mean and aggressive to receptionists and nurses, and yet very polite and cordial when interacting with the dentist or hygienist. This isn’t acceptable.

We are a team, and work closely with our colleagues and as such, poor behaviour and interactions are offensive to the whole team.

We ask patients to be mindful of their language, their tone and the volume of their voice - especially when in common areas. Some patients are nervous about their appointment and find arguments and confrontational situations incredibly stressful, and at other times we have children and vulnerable people in the building. These interactions are not appropriate for them to witness.

If you as a patient feel, we have not held up our part of the service, or find our behaviour to be rude or unacceptable, then we have protocols in place to help patients report situations. Follow the link below.

All our team deserve to work in an environment where they are treated with respect and dignity.