Patient information policy

Non-attendance and cancellations of less than 24 hours’ notice without a valid reason deprives other patients of our services and may count as a failed to attend.

Appointments are often wasted as people do not attend. These appointments could have been used by other patients.

The first time a patient fails to attend or give less than 24 hours’ notice for cancelling a booked appointment we will send a letter or e-mail reminding them that in future they must cancel appointments if they are unable to attend.

After 2 failed to attend/short notice cancellation (less than 24 hours’ notice) appointments in a 12-month period we will advise you that we will no longer be able to offer you treatment on the NHS.  You may book further appointments on a private basis and you will be asked to pay a deposit at the time of booking.  If these appointments are failed or cancelled without 24 hours’ notice you will forfeit the deposit.

An appointment is considered to have been broken if any of the following occur:

• the patient fails to show up for the appointment,
• the patient appears more than 10 minutes late for a scheduled appointment, or
• the patient calls to cancel an appointment with too little advance notice to allow that appointment time to be rescheduled with another patient (24 hours will be considered to be the minimum time necessary to avoid a broken appointment).

Patients who wish to cancel dental appointments must do so a minimum of 24 hours in advance of their scheduled appointment.  If less notice is given without a valid excuse, the appointment will be considered to have been broken.