Unfair Cancellation Fees - Private Consultant

PterionPterion

wannabe_a_saver said:

Which bit?  Nurses with PhDs using the title inappropriately or doctors calling their colleagues 'nurse' rather than by name?  I've been in the NH 10 years and never seen the former, and thankfully the latter is rare. 

Not particularly the nurses using titles inappropriately but other allied health (optometrists audiologists) PhD holders being called Dr's. They have of course earned their title but it was always comical and confusing when trying to ask for clinical management help during studies.

Ibrahim5

You don't need to earn a PhD you can just buy them off the internet. It seems a waste of time the General Medical Council spending all the time they do regulating medical degrees if people don't know the difference between medical degrees and PhDs.

sheramber

One of the dentists at my surgery used the title DR.

Ibrahim5

sheramber said:

One of the dentists at my surgery used the title DR.

Yes they are officially allowed to now by the general dental council. They changed their policy a few years ago. 

JamoLew

Difficult situation.

Depending on the situation it may not be professionally prudent for a none medical doctor to insist on the use of the term Dr where is may cause confusion to another person or especially a patient.

I often come across Doctors referring to Nurses as “nurse” and vice versa- especially where names are not known.

I will commonly address a Consultant (or any other person) by their first name - but not in the presence of a patient where I will always use their professional title.

Nm207

Greylocks said:

It may be the consultant not only has lost out on the £160 but has incurred rental expenses for the allotted time period. Depending on location hourly clinical rental fees can be quite high.

The consultant is a psychotherapist and this was a Zoom call (no rentals involved). I have been their client for a few months now and they have also cancelled on me before.

Nm207

MalMonroe said:

I'm really sorry to hear that you've had this horrible experience. What kind of a psychotherapist is that? To not even care about how her actions will affect her clients.

She's being very unreasonable, considering she has done the same to you and you have not charged her. 
If I were you I'd put in writing your objection to her making this charge and I would also enclose an invoice  for the amount of £160 for the time she failed to give you adequate notice of cancellation. Your time is just as valuable to you as her time is to her.

I also think she charges really high fees.  

I really like your proposed solution

olgadapolga

Ibrahim5 said:

sheramber said:

One of the dentists at my surgery used the title DR.

Yes they are officially allowed to now by the general dental council. They changed their policy a few years ago. 

I had a dentist who's title was "Dr" over thirty years ago.

Nm207

With regards to the original question of the thread, does anyone know what my legal rights are? I will not be seeing the consultant again and do not wish to pay the fees until I have a clear understanding of my rights. As I said, the reason behind the cancellation was beyond my control and I was not offered any other form of attending the session. Do I have any consumer rights here protecting me from unreasonable fees? Should I post this question under the consumer rights section?

PterionPterion

Nm207 said:

With regards to the original question of the thread, does anyone know what my legal rights are? I will not be seeing the consultant again and do not wish to pay the fees until I have a clear understanding of my rights. As I said, the reason behind the cancellation was beyond my control and I was not offered any other form of attending the session. Do I have any consumer rights here protecting me from unreasonable fees? Should I post this question under the consumer rights section?

To obtain the payment they would need to employ debt recovery services or small claims. 

Whether the fees are unreasonable would depend on how much they would charge their patients for that type of consultation or what their usual invoice to health insurance is.