AIBU - being charged whopping amount for missing appointment.

[NasiGoreng]

I've messed up and messed a private appointment with a GP this morning for my DC. It is not a major health issue, just something that needed doing for my DC. With all the rush back to school I totally forgot about it. It was one of those appointments made about 6 weeks ago due to availability.

Anyway, I just had a call from the hospital to tell me they will be charging me the full amount for missing the appointment. I kind of get this, but why the whole amount? Also, just looked at all the T&C's and it doesn't mention charging for no shows.

I know I am in the wrong, but to be charged the full amount? AIBU. It is a whopping 200 pounds!

You should 100% pay for the missed appointment. My OH sees private patients and he doesn't get the whole £200 he charges he has to pay to rent on the rooms, for administration staff, for record keeping and insurance. Those costs will be there if you don't show up.
Then there is the time away from us. He sees patients in his own time in addition to his nhs work should he just sit there waiting all day for you then come home out of pocket because you weren't organised enough to remember the appointment you made.

Why not drop in ‘I pay my taxes- you work for me’
They love that one.

Or my personal favourite “I’m entitled to.....”

OP Would you go to your place of employment and do a quarter of your shift for absolutely no pay? What great lessons you are teaching DC, that it is okay to engage someone for their services/expertise/their time then refuse to pay them. Shocking.

Paying 200 quid, actually it's 215 pounds to have a wart looked at is a complete piss take

But you booked the appointment.... If you didn't think it was worth £215 why book the appointment? Some (rich!) people would happily pay that, others wouldn't.

from now on I am going to be a bit more forceful with my local GP surgery over a few matters

In my area NHS GPs

• don't prescribe topical treatments for warts as local guidelines are against prescribing over the counter medicines
• don't do cryotherapy for warts as this is not part of their contract and so they aren't paid for it (GPs aren't paid to do whatever patients want, they have a list of things they are contracted to do, previously they offered extra goodwill services but no longer as practices too busy/ financially stretched)
• CANNOT refer warts to NHS specialists - referral letters about a wart will be intercepted by an administrator and blocked, because hospitals are also not funded to treat warts

So being forceful wouldn't create a solution, but would probably add to the GP's feeling of disliking their job!

At our Dr's they have a board up that says how many no shows they'd had the previous month. Its always hundreds.

Are they unable to send automated reminders, or is that how many miss their appointment even after being reminded?

£200! Look I get the whole “ this isn’t a race to the bottom” .However thats more than 10% of the average monthly take home wage.
Surely private practices add a bit on for no shows, like shops do for shoplifters. Yes it’s wrong but enviably they’re a fact of life.

I think it’s profiteering. They may have had to cover costs but they haven’t had to work for it. Some charge is reasonable but not the entire cost. Most services identify where they lose money and try to sort it; missed appointments - text/ call. the day before.

They may have had to cover costs but they haven’t had to work for it. Some charge is reasonable but not the entire cost.

Why though? The OP wanted a private service but they dont want to have to pay for that time because they forgot to turn up. They agreed to the charge when they were going to use the time, but because they didn't use it - through their own fault - they dont want to pay, despite the fact that the service was available and it was their actions that meant they didn't use it.

If I book a plane ticket and then miss the flight because I slept in then it is not the airline's fault I am out the money for the flight. They might, as a goodwill gesture, offer to discount another ticket but there is no obligation for them to do anything or return any of my money.

I am paying for a service I didn't use because of my own actions ... how is that any different?

"Or do you only feel like that now you’ve charged in accordance with free market principles?"

this!

I think most places use a degree of discretion if you cancel at short notice for a good reason (no-show is obviously different). I had work done by a private specialist dentist last year where the cancellation fee was huge, and was struck down with tonsillitis the day before my second treatment. They kindly waived the fee, because I could barely talk when I called, and given I’d already paid for the first treatment, they presumably knew I wasn’t going to scarper with a half-done root canal. That was 24 hours notice, and I did offer to pay the fee, although I had my fingers crossed they would say it was okay!

Even if there was a cancellation fee the OP didn't cancel she forget the appointment so they weren't notified of the 'cancel',

It's an expensive mistake to make unfortunately. However if they didn't charge with missed appointments they would lose a lot of money.

Someone mentioned flights. So if you miss the flight, you should pay. Sounds reasonable.

If the airline sells the ticket to someone else, should they be paid twice for the same seat or should the first customer get a refund after costs? Doesn't happen?

In practice it's worse. Many airlines deliberately overbook and bump customers off. Usually by offering enough compensation until someone wants to be delayed but occasionally involuntarily.

I realise this additional profit might be argued to reduce the price for everyone (might need to look at the real figures to understand if this is true) though an example where 'no shows' are often pure profit.

Maybe the nhs should start charging for missed appointments might stop people being so blasé about wasting GP time.

As an aside:

All those who would like the NHS to charge for DNA (Did Not Attend) appointments :
Does this apply if:

You are admitted to hospital

Your spouce or child is admitted as an Emergency (and your appointment goes out of your head)

Someone in your family dies

You forget because you have dementia

Your spouce has the appointment but you cannot get them to leave the house (they are mobile but not concurrant)

You are very unwell

You have been unwell but thought you'd be better but you weren't

All these are reasons I've heard. If you had a "Charge For DNA" Policy would it cover everything? No acceptable reasons?

Because its not unkown for me to speak to a patient to be told they mixed up the day and for them to phone the office and tell them something different .......because I don't update phone conversations on Progress Notes or nothing do I ?

I do think yabu, it seems obvious to me that missing an appointment with a private gp without notice will mean the full charge remains payable. At the same time its ridiculous that you needed to go to a private gp for this and I think its shit that the treatment isn't being provided via the NHS- if your son can't bend his finger that's not just a cosmetic issue.

@Zilla1 I was the one who mentioned flights - 3 posts above you and my name is at the top of the post.

The analogy was more from the consumer side - if you pay for a service and don't cancel then you still have to pay for it. Whether that's a flight or a private GP appt, you're responsible for paying.

The difference with flights is that airlines have people available to fill the gaps at short notice (either because they've made a calculated risk of overbooking or have people who are flying standby). GPs dont generally have patients wandering in off the street on the off chance theres a private appointment available.

You had an appointment with a private GP. You made that appointment and you forgot to attend. They could not give that appointment to someone else and have to pay for facilities and staffing regardless of whether you turn up. You pay for their time whether you chose to avail yourself of it or not. It matters not what the appointment was for- a minor or a serious issue- you should pay as it was your error.

They aren’t a charity, you knew the charge for the service when you booked it. You could have availed yourself if the appointment but forgot. Why should the private GP/hospital (or anyone else really) be out of pocket for your mistake?

It sounds a heck of a lot. I paid £250 for a private appt in London with a consultant who is a professor and one of the few experts in his field in the country. I do understand you missed your appt and should pay but wow that’s seems a hefty whack.

Zilla - you have mentioned a few times that the surgery might have filled the gap with another paying customer . This is extremely unlikely. The doctor would have waited a certain amount of time first, in case the patient was late. It would have then required a new patient to walk in from the street at that exact moment wanting an appointment on the spot, and their treatment requiring exactly the right length of time left before the next appointment started. The doctor would also have spent some time perusing the ops notes prior to their appointment. It isn't anything like a flight whereby people stand around the airport waiting for a flight anywhere.

The hospital still has to pay the consultant and their bills for the use of the doctor sitting in the room wither your in it or not. If they don't cover the cost of paying the consultants etc who show up for work when a patient is a no show ythen why would they keep doing the job.

You do have to pay, same as you would with anything else, but £200 is super steep for a private GP appointment. I booked one a few months ago and it was £70. Tests and medicine were on top of that, obviously, but the ‘slot’ cost £70.

The time was held for you and you didn't turn up. Absolutely fair the doctor/their business still get paid the full amount.

I also live the “being more forceful” with your GP.

For a wart, it will likely get you nowhere. The GP has tried cryotherapy (and some areas won’t even fund that). They won’t be paid for removing the wary- it’s not in the routine (or general medical services) contract and not claimable for under minor surgery/enhanced services. Therefore, your GP cannot do it as it is not funded. Dermatology/plastics will also not accept a referral for wart removal (not usually recommended anyway). So what exactly do you expect them to do?

Being “forceful” will get you nowhere. It will make you seem needlessly difficult- GP is not “fibbing you off” they have done what they are funded to do and what is in the guidelines.

Wary= wart!

You sound very angry with everyone OP, everyone but the person responsible for getting the bill.

I had a big ugly wart on my knuckle once, hideous it was. I put over the counter Bazuka on it twice a day and filed in regularly with an emery board.

It went in a few weeks and cost less than a fiver.

If it was that important you wouldn’t have forgotten , and if money was that tight you wouldn’t have forgotten to cancel .
This is something to learn from . Have respect for someone’s time

Melj, Arethere,

The private GPs I've used in the past (Men B for a child out of age group) did overbook, run late and would usually have filled a clinic slot when someone DNA. I'm not saying the OPs GP would have done and it's for a different but I think she might want to ask.
I'm not going to speculate further but I was conscious that lots of posters seemed really quite certain about how this private GPs runs its business. I don't know but at least I know what I don't know.