We would like to thank our patients for their continued support and understanding during and since the pandemic. It’s been a difficult couple of years coming out of COVID lockdown and adjusting to different ways of working.
We are writing to our patients to communicate that we lost more than two full days of clinical time in October due to patients failing to attend their appointments or cancelling without notice. We understand how busy life is for everyone, however, this missed clinical time has an impact on our ability to see other patients who may be waiting for appointments. Sadly October was not an isolated month, the impact has been getting progressively worse as the year has continued.
Access to dentistry across the country is limited and as such we have a long waiting list for appointments, especially hygiene. By failing to attend or cancelling late we are unable to offer appointment slots to patients on our waiting list.
We aim to help by providing reminders by email and text messages two weeks before your appointment and three days before. If you are not receiving these reminders, please check we have the correct contact details for you and if not, call us to update them as soon as possible.
We have taken the necessary decision to implement a deposit scheme for private appointments with immediate effect. This means we will require a deposit of £25 per 15 minutes according to the appointment time allocated by your dentist. The deposit will be taken off the cost of any treatment on the day but is non-refundable if you cancel without giving us 48 hours’ notice or fail to attend your appointment. For patients on our membership plan you will not be required to pay the deposit for your hygiene appointments.
We appreciate it is not ideal but we hope you understand why it is necessary. If you would like to discuss this letter, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
