Dentist charges for missing my appointment even though I didn't?

JethroUK

brook2jack wrote: »

OP is in NI where they are allowed to charge for missed appointments , the same as Scotland. It's only England and Wales where NHS dentists are not allowed to charge for failed appointments.

They haven't missed their appointment!!!!

What part of this conversation is confusing you!!!

ThumbRemote

JethroUK wrote: »

They haven't missed their appointment!!!!

What part of this conversation is confusing you!!!

The confusion seems to be all yours.

There was a side-discussion about whether an NHS dentist could even levy a charge for missing an appointment - see toothsmith's earlier post. brook2jack was responding to that.

Stompa

Toothsmith wrote: »

If it's NHS - then they are not allowed to charge a missed appt fee - certainly not in England or Wales, not certain about N.I. or Scotland.

Interesting. My NHS dentist in England certainly has a sign up in the waiting room saying they charge a missed appointment fee. I'll have to look more closely next time I'm there, perhaps it only applies to private patients.

brook2jack

Fees for missed nhs appointments were abolished in 2006 in England and Wales. However a dentist can still charge for a missed private appointment.

Since 2006 in many parts of the country , on average , 40% of all new patient NHS appointments are missed and a grand total of 3.5 MILLION nhs dental appointments are missed each year. Hence there are many calls to reintroduce missed appointment charges in Wales and England.