Cancellations, Failed and Missed Appointments

Cancellations, Failed and Missed Appointments

It is inevitable that sometimes you may need to cancel or rearrange your dental appointments.

We ask patients to give as much notice as possible when cancelling an appointment so we have the opportunity to offer it to someone else. Although we understand that during an emergency, this is not always possible, non-attendance and cancellations at short notice without a valid reason deprive other patients of our services.

Appointments are often wasted as people do not attend. Other patients could have used these appointments.

The first time a patient fails to attend a booked appointment, we will send a letter or e-mail reminding them that they must cancel appointments if they cannot attend in the future with at least 24 hours notice and warn that if they fail to attend again they may no longer be seen at the practice.

After 2 failed to attend appointments, we will advise you that we will no longer be able to book further appointments on the NHS.

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 half the appointment length late 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 the minimum time necessary to avoid a broken appointment).

Patients who wish to cancel dental appointments must do so at least 24 hours before the appointment. If less notice is given without a valid excuse, the appointment will be considered to have been broken.

Hygiene appointment cancellations
A £20 deposit is required at the time of booking all hygiene appointments.

If you need to cancel or reschedule your appointment, we kindly ask for at least 24 hours’ notice. Cancellations made with more than 24 hours’ notice will not incur any charge, and your deposit can be refunded or transferred to a new appointment.

Cancellations made with less than 24 hours’ notice, or failure to attend your appointment, will result in the £20 deposit being retained as a short-notice cancellation fee.

Cancellations due to illness

If you are showing symptoms of a stomach bug or a respiratory illness, including COVID, please let us know so we can rearrange your appointment for when you are feeling better. This also helps to keep our staff and other patients safe. The standard cancellation period will not apply in these