Missed Appointment fee for Dental Checkup

Jimmy_Boy

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Another thing to bear in mind is how difficult will it be finding another dentist in your area?
If you don't pay what is being requested or don't manage to negotiate a reduced sum, there is every possibility that the dentist will either refuse to see you again until it's paid off of simply drop you as a patient.

There is another dentist which is actually closer to me. I imagine if I dont pay then my current dentist would drop me as a patient (which im not overly concerned about)

davidmcn

Jimmy_Boy wrote: »

Are they not obliged to make you aware of cancellation fees at the time of appointment? My company will charge a missed appointment fee for their customers, but they make the customer aware at the time of the appointment and also the fee.

It's probably reasonably implicit that you'd cover their costs for wasting their time. Whether that amounts to £59 for 15 mins, I don't know - that seems more than the average profit they'd make out of a fee-paying patient for the same period, and arguably their losses will be even less if you eventually turn up and pay them for treatment (unless they genuinely turned somebody else away because you had booked).

Jimmy_Boy

They are closed today so unable to phone and discuss. Looking at there website, I see these fees.

Adult new patient exam	                                £49.00
Child (under 18) new patient exam	                £39.00
Emergency exam	                                        £65.00
Non-registered patient emergency exam	£65.00

shaun_from_Africa

Jimmy_Boy wrote: »

There is another dentist which is actually closer to me. I imagine if I dont pay then my current dentist would drop me as a patient (which im not overly concerned about)

When the new dentist contacts the old one to request a copy of your records, it's possible that they may ask why you are no longer a patient. If they do and they get told that yo were dropped because of a missed appointment and not paying the fee for this, the new dentist may also refuse to accept you.

Undervalued

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

When the new dentist contacts the old one to request a copy of your records, it's possible that they may ask why you are no longer a patient. If they do and they get told that yo were dropped because of a missed appointment and not paying the fee for this, the new dentist may also refuse to accept you.

Unlike doctors, that is not normal practice with dentists. Providing other information would be a breach of patient confidentiality, although quite hard to prove!

In any case the OP has no obligation to tell the new dentist who he used before.

shaun_from_Africa

Undervalued wrote: »

Unlike doctors, that is not normal practice with dentists.

Fair enough, I never knew that.

Undervalued wrote: »

In any case the OP has no obligation to tell the new dentist who he used before.

But if the new dentist doesn't have any dental records for the OP, it could work out a fair bit more expensive for them if they need treatment in the near future.
There may well be recent x-rays and other such info in the records, something that might need redoing (and paying for) should the need arise and a good record of a patients long term dental history would probably be very useful to a new dental practice.

POPPYOSCAR

Undervalued wrote: »

Unlike doctors, that is not normal practice with dentists. Providing other information would be a breach of patient confidentiality, although quite hard to prove!

In any case the OP has no obligation to tell the new dentist who he used before.

I was thinking that.

My husband used to use a dentist near to where he worked but became unhappy with them.

He then registered with our family dentist and they never questioned where he had gone before.

Undervalued

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Fair enough, I never knew that.


But if the new dentist doesn't have any dental records for the OP, it could work out a fair bit more expensive for them if they need treatment in the near future.
There may well be recent x-rays and other such info in the records, something that might need redoing (and paying for) should the need arise and a good record of a patients long term dental history would probably be very useful to a new dental practice.

As I understand it (I am not a dentist but do have a lot of experience in how various professional practices operate) that isn't generally considered necessary. Yes, I suppose they may be prepared to look at past X-Rays if they are available but generally knowing the history of a tooth problem seems less important than would be the case in other areas of medicine.

The OP could require disclosure of his records if he wishes, for which there is now normally no fee chargeable. A dispute over a cancellation fee would not be a valid reason to withhold them.

The OP, quite rightly, feels a moral duty to pay them something but clearly feels that the full fee is excessive under the circumstances. For what its worth I agree with him.

I think there is a potential get out if he wants to use it. In any case I think it very unlikely they would sue. However unless a phone call leads to a very amicable settlement he isn't realistically going to be using them again. Particularly as he wasn't very happy with them in any case.

nickcc

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

When the new dentist contacts the old one to request a copy of your records, it's possible that they may ask why you are no longer a patient. If they do and they get told that yo were dropped because of a missed appointment and not paying the fee for this, the new dentist may also refuse to accept you.

I also can't see any reason a new dentist would want to see your previous dental records. Everytime we've moved to a new dentist a full examination with X-rays has been carried out, which of course you paid for.

elsien

Not sure why you're asking about cancellation fees.
You didn't cancel. You just didn't turn up. It's not the same thing.