Appointment Booking and Management

Management of appointments

Our appointment system supports timely access to care and treatment, allows patients to access services at a time that suits them and minimises the length of time people have to wait. Appointments can be made or rescheduled by calling our dedicated appointments line on 01872 552353.

If you arrive for an appointment and the dentist/hygenist is running late, please be courteous and understand that there will be a good reason for the late running of a clinic and that in the future this reason may be to look after you. We will try to keep you informed of any late running of a surgery.

We aim to provide telephone reminders for patients the day before their appointment (or 2 days in advance depending on staffing levels).  Sometimes this is not possible and it is always the patient's responsibility to ensure they attend their booked appointment.

Cancellation or delay of an appointment by the practice

We will only cancel or delay a patient's appointment in unavoidable circumstances. In such cases we will take the following steps:

• The patient will be contacted as soon as the practice is aware of the need to cancel or delay the appointment. We will explain the reason for the cancellation or delay.
  
• At the time of contact, the patient will be offered a new appointment at the earliest time available.
  
• If a patient is unable to commit to a new appointment during that contact, we will ask them to get in touch at a later time, when we will offer them a priority appointment.
  

 

Cancellation of an appointment or missed appointment by a patient

Patients are requested to give at least 24 hours notice to cancel a dental appointment. Cancellations should be made by telephone on 01872 552353. Late cancellations and missed appointments represent a cost to the practice, when other patients could have been seen in the time set aside for the patient.

We do not make a charge to NHS patients for a late cancellation or missed appointment. If two NHS dental appointments are missed or cancelled with less than 24 hours' notice, we do not guarantee being able to complete a patient's NHS treatment or offer them NHS treatment in the future. This policy will also be implemented and NHS place withdrawn for any patient who has not attended the practice for an appointment within two years.

There is a fee for private dental appointments that are missed or cancelled with less than 24 hours notice. The fee is based on the length of the appointment and can be found in the updated private fees guide.

It is our aim to telephone patients after a missed appointment to understand the reason for non-attendance and to inform them about any fee or decision about their NHS dental care.

Any appeals about missed or cancelled appointment decisions by a patient should be made in writing to the practice manager, Mandy Wright.