Appointment Cancellation Policy

We understand that unplanned issues can come up and you may need to cancel an appointment. If that happens, we respectfully ask for scheduled appointments to be cancelled at least 48 hours in advance not including weekends.

The Dentist, Hygienist and Our Staff want to be available for your needs and the needs of all our patients. When a patient does not show up for a scheduled appointment, another patient loses an opportunity to be seen. Although we have always had a cancellation policy, circumstances have caused us to enforce a policy of charging for no-show appointments, and those appointments not cancelled within 48 hours. As of 1st April 2016 there will be a fee of £10.00 for every 10 minutes, if we do not receive a call to cancel an appointment. 

Thank you for being a valued patient and for your understanding and cooperation as we institute this policy. This policy will enable us to open otherwise unused appointments to better serve the needs of all patients.

Same Day bookings and cancellations

From 1st April 2021, we have started to take deposits for every patient who books online or on phone for same day emergency appointments or any other appointments on any other day, these deposits are non- refundable if a patient for any reason fails to attend. We take deposits on the phone and also via bank transfer where patients are sent a text message with bank details and a payment reference which is unique to every patient. Patients who fail to attend are not returned the deposits under any circumstance as cancelling an appointment after booking does waste the time of our whole team and when a patient does not show up for a scheduled appointment, another patient loses an opportunity to be seen

For any other treatment deposits are taken on the day of booking the treatment to ensure patients attend and if they fail to or for any other reasons can’t or don’t attend these deposits are non refundable if 48 hour notice isn’t given to us and this 48 hour notice does not include weekends.

CCTV Policy

Most practices require some form of CCTV to be installed in the waiting rooms to prevent and detect any crime that could possibly occur. However patients need to be confident that the CCTV is needed and is proportionate to the needs that they have. Due to CCTV images of patients being sensitive information the ‘Data protection act 1998’ must be abided at all times that CCTV cameras are operational.

During the registration process here at The Dentist we ask all patients prior to their consultation, to fill out a Medical History/Personal Details form. In this form it clearly states that we have CCTV in place and that patients are entitled to ask reception/the dentist to disable this if they don’t wish this to be in progress whilst they’re in treatment .

Clear and prominent signs are displayed in the areas that the CCTV is in operation in order to show the patients and staff that they are being recorded in that area.

The recorded Images are not kept for longer than absolutely needed and are removed on a regular basis. The data that we store is secure and locked away. The information can only ever be disclosed without consent in exceptional circumstances such as:

• A patient or staff member stealing something from the surgery
• A patient or staff member putting themselves or others at serious risk
• Information that can be used in a police investigation, however in this situation we aren’t at liberty to tell the police any of the information about the dental treatments or any of the details of the patient to them in order to maintain confidentiality.
• If the CCTV footage needs to be used at any point and there is any one else in the video that hasn’t given consent such as other patients or staff members they would be blurred out from the footage in order for it to be used.

Even when consent patients consent is given all CCTV footage will remain anonymous so the identity of the patient can’t be known during the footage to remain confidentiality, if the footage is ever used for training or educational purposes.

Patients are entitled to know the following information; the reason that they’re being recorded, how the footage will be/planning to be used, who will be able to see the footage, whether copies will be made and also what arrangements are in place for securely storing the footage and also how long the footage will be kept.

If a specific patient has been recorded and the data has been kept that footage would be kept on the system with the rest of their notes, so if the patient ever did decide to see their notes it is there for them to see (Data Protection Act 1998).

Data Protection Policy 

The Dentist complies with the 1998 Data Protection Act and this policy describes our procedures for ensuring that personal information about patients is processed fairly and lawfully.

What personal data do we hold?

In order to provide you with high standard of dental care and attention, we need to hold personal information about you. This personal data includes:

• Your past and current medical and dental conditions.
• Personal details such as… your age, DOB, address, telephone number, mobile numbers, email addresses and your doctors details.
• Radiograph, clinical photographs and study models.
• Information about the treatment that we have provided or propose to provide and its cost.
• Notes of conversations/incidents that might occur for which records need to be kept.
• Records of consent to treatment.
• Any correspondence relation to you with other healthcare professionals for example in hospital or community service.

Why do we hold information about you?

We need to keep comprehensive and accurate personal data about our patients in order to provide them with safe and appropriate dental care.

How do we process data?

We will process personal data that we hold about you in the following ways:

Retaining information:

• We will retain your dental records while you are a practice patients and after you cease to be a patient for at least 11 years or for children until the age of 25 whichever is the longest.

Security of information

• Personal data about you is held in the practice’s computer system and in a manual filling system. The information is not access to it. Our computer system has secure audit trails and we back up information routinely.

Disclosure of information

In order to provide proper and safe dental care, we may need to disclose personal information about you to:

• Your doctor
• Hospital
• Community Dentists
• Other health professionals caring for you.
• NHS authorities
• Private dental schemes of which you are a member of.

Disclosure will take place on a ‘need-to-know’ basis, so that only those individuals/organisations who need to know in order to provide care to you and for the proper administration of government (whose personnel are covered by strict confidentiality rules) will be given information. Only the information that the recipient needs to know will be disclosed. In very limited circumstances or when required by law or a court order, personal data may have to be disclosed to a third party not connected with your health care, in all other situations, disclosure that is not covered by this Code of Practice will only occur when we have your specific consent. Where possible you will be informed of theses requests for disclosure.

If you do not agree

If you do not wish personal data that we hold about you to be disclosed or used in the way that is not described in the Code of Practice, please discuss the matter with your dentist (Rikki Dhody). You have the right to object, but this may affect our ability to provide you with dental care.

Complaints Procedure

We pride ourselves on giving the best quality care and treatment to all our patients, and therefore any feedback is much appreciated. We can use this to better ourselves and improve on services that our patients require. If at any point you feel unhappy with anything, from treatment, to the way in which staff deal with you, we have a complaints procedure in place.

We like to deal with complaints promptly at the first stage, so that we are able to move forward from the issue and resolve anything that needs to be resolved. We will listen to patients carefully, professionally and in a good manner as it’s just as important to us that you feel comfortable with the experience you are getting here at The Dentist.

Initially you would get into contact with the practice manager, to discuss the complaint. This could be via a phone call, written letter or verbally if the manager is available. Otherwise the receptionist will arrange a date and time in which this can happen. The practice manager will then discuss with the patient how the complaint will be handled and what action would be taken, for example whether further treatment could be done or offer a refund, if the patient is still not happy.

Practice Manager: Mrs Ana Kukreja

Contact her on: 01922-624-900.

In some cases a detailed investigation may be required, if this is the case then we will write to you within 5 working days to acknowledge your complaint and to advise when we expect to be able to resolve the matter.

We aim to resolve all complaints within 10 working days. If this isn’t possible, you will be informed and told when to expect a response.

If you are still not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint, you can contact the Dental Complaints Service for further assistance.