Introduction:

In order to ensure that we can offer prompt and convenient appointments to all our registered patients and to avoid any un-filled clinic time we have adopted a late cancellation and missed appointment policy.

This policy introduces a rebooking fee if an appointment is missed or cancelled within 48 hours for the second time during a 24 month period.

Policy

If you:

• Fail to attend more than 1 appointment within a 24 month period
• Cancel more than 1 appointment with less than 48 hours’ notice¹ within a 24 month period
• Fail to attend an appointment and cancel an appointment with less than 48 hours’ notice¹ (in any combination) within 24 month period

you will be asked to pay a £45 rebooking fee before being able to secure further appointments.

Any appointments you already have scheduled may be cancelled at the absolute discretion of the practice until the fee is paid and in addition, you may be asked to pay a deposit to secure future appointments.

1 For the avoidance of doubt, non-working days and bank holidays are not included. So for example if you wished to cancel a 2pm appointment on a Monday, you would need to let us know before 2pm on the preceding Thursday.

At the first missed appointment or appointment cancelled with less than 48 hours’ notice, a letter will be sent to you outlining the policy but no rebooking fee will need to be paid.

If however, within 24 month period, another appointment is missed or cancelled with less than 48 hours’ notice, then a rebooking fee will need to be paid before any further appointments can be booked.  Should you already have appointments made, our reception team will contact you and give you the option of paying the rebooking fee or cancelling these appointments.

As usual we will still provide you with a printed appointment card when initially making the appointment at reception. You will also continue to receive our courtesy email reminder one week before the appointment as well as a text message reminder three days before the appointment. This should allow ample time to cancel or change an appointment if required.

It is our hope that by introducing this policy, we can really reduce the amount of unused clinic time and in turn offer prompt and convenient appointments for all our patients in the future.