Missed private Dentist apointement

larssongu

I am not sure if this is the right forum to ask, but ill try anyways.

I have had my teeth corrected. As a part of my dental correction i was signed up to see a dental cleaner/ hygenist ..

Unfortunatley I missed the apointment due to a meeting delay, but I got fined 75 pounds (full price) of the cleaning and 50 pounds for the dental apointment.

I was never told I would get fined for missing an apointment, or signed any agreement of it. Can they fine me?

Thank you,

Kasper

societys_child

Most dentists I know of charge full price for missed appointments. There is usually a sign explaining this in reception. They will say you agreed to this, when you made the appointment. They lose a lot of revenue from missed appointments and have the same costs whether you turn up or not.

suki1964

Yes they can and they will do

Even an NHS practice will charge for the cost of an missed appointment.


Why should someone be out of pocket because you didn't remember to show up?

Will be glad when hospitals and doctors start charging as well. Might mean those that are really sick and need to be seen get seen

Annisele

If you mean you got fined on top of paying the cost of the appointment (i.e. you had to pay £75 for the cleaning, £50 for the dental appointment, and then £125 in fines) then that's not on.

If you just mean you had to pay for the time you'd booked - then the dentist is perfectly allowed to do that. When you booked the appointments, you agreed to pay for the time. The fact you didn't turn up for the time you'd paid for is rather beside the point

Sally_A

Gonna skew this discussion slightly...it really pees me off when I arrive on time and the dentist/doctor or whoever is running 30 minutes behind. Some people only have a certain time booked off work for such appointments, and have the good grace to be there on time for the pre-booked time - can the patients charge for loss of wages, if they are an hour late returning to work?

No appointment should be more than 10 mins late either way - whether as the Dr/dentist or customer.

It all seems to be biased in the medical professions favour.

Poppie68

Sally_A wrote: »

Gonna skew this discussion slightly...it really pees me off when I arrive on time and the dentist/doctor or whoever is running 30 minutes behind. Some people only have a certain time booked off work for such appointments, and have the good grace to be there on time for the pre-booked time - can the patients charge for loss of wages, if they are an hour late returning to work?

No appointment should be more than 10 mins late either way - whether as the Dr/dentist or customer.

It all seems to be biased in the medical professions favour.

Treatment/consultations often run over the allocated time, should patients be thrown out mid appointment, would you be happy to be turfed out of the room without treatment being completed?

forgotmyname

I have known a few people that had to have several injections before any work could be done. The first ones had no effect.

So its annoying not to be seen on time but its life.

Same as phoning the doctor for an appointment and find there are none so you need to come and sit in teh emergency slots. Sitting there in an almost empty surgery making me think why are there no appointments?

Sally_A

Obviously not...but why can we be fined for being late, and not them? Is their time more important than ours?

Problem arises with 15m slots for everyone - regardless of time needed.

brook2jack

NHS dentists in England and Wales cannot charge for missed appointments since 2006.

This may be why , in some areas, 40% of new patients fail their appointments.

NHS dentists in Scotland and NI can charge.

The overheads of a practice still need to be paid for if you don't turn up and failing to turn up means no one else will be able to use that slot. Most private practices will have as standard a charge for missed appointments.

Unfortunately human beings are not machines so you cannot say that treatments are always going to go perfectly to time, particularly when each day emergency patients are slotted in and it is difficult to predict how long their treatment may take.

The average NHS practice costs upwards of £140 per room to run and private much more. So to balance the books you cannot leave gaps during the day "just in case". So if an extraction takes a bit longer, someone feels a bit faint after an injection, a routine check up turns up a serious problem that needs urgent attention, a child has fallen over and needs urgent treatment, a little old lady needs assistance to get from the waiting room into the chair , etc you either turf out that person once their allocated time is up or you run a bit late.

Running late and time pressures is one of the reasons dentistry , after air traffic controller, is one of the most stressful jobs.

brook2jack

Sally_A wrote: »

Obviously not...but why can we be fined for being late, and not them? Is their time more important than ours?

Problem arises with 15m slots for everyone - regardless of time needed.

Actually most dentists will block book from 15 minutes to 2 hour time slots trying to predict how long treatment will take. But the human body is very complex and doesn't always behave how it should.

So should you fine the person who is nervous and faints making the appointment run longer?

Should you fine the person who thought that just had a little chip off a tooth but actually has an abscess and needs treatment now?

Should you fine the person who comes in for a routine check up which reveals an urgent problem that needs referral?

Should you fine the dentist or receptionist because they are not psychic and cannot predict exactly how long every persons treatment is going to take?

Or do you think about a NHS dental system that requires dentists to fill every second of the day with treatment with no space for eventualities? Private dentists can build in time for longer appointments and keep spaces open for toothaches because they set their own fees.

greatgimpo

I never complain if my private dentist is running late and I'm waiting 30-45 minutes, as that could be, and has been, me someone else is waiting for.