I try to keep the blog fairly light-hearted, but I'm writing about something today a little more serious. For some time we've noticed that the hygienists' appointment books are really busy for weeks, even months ahead. However, on the day there are quite a few people who either don't come to their appointment, or cancel with such short notice that the appointment slot is wasted.
Having had a think about this as a practice, I'm afraid we are going to start enforcing the policy which we've always had in the background, which is to charge patients who fail to keep their hygienist appointment, or who cancel at short notice and where we can't fill the gap. The fee for a missed appointment will be £30.
We understand that this may not be popular among those who are charged, but we hope that everyone will understand the need for this. The ideal situation is that we don't have to charge anyone, as all the hygienist appointments are fully utilised - I'll blog in the future about whether this policy has been a success or not.