Dentist charges

[CleverSwan]

I rang the dentist to cancel tomorrows appointment as I'm unwell.
When speaking to the receptionist she tells me that I have actually missed the appointment as it was today.
She told me I would have to pay for the treatment that I missed.
I apologise and agreed this was my fault, and agreed to pay.
She then says I would also have to pay £30 cancellation charge.
I disputed this as I haven't cancelled as I missed the appointment and am paying for the treatment.
Surely it's one or the other?
I paid up as I was stunned and she was insitant.. should I argue for a refund? Or AIBU?
I feel the cancellation fee shouldn't have occurred.

I’m done. I’ve had enough bashing for one night. 😂
Maybe speak to your MP!

That will be £82 thank you.

They are wrong to charge both ! Tell them just to pretend you had your teeth cleaned. Idiots!

I have a dental plan and they decided recently that too many people were on different plans so we were all to go on one plan. They also said that people were not making enough of their plans 🤷‍♀️and this would be a more economic way of doing it. I have been paying 28 a month for 2 checks and 3 hygiene apts. They decided to raise it to 40 for 2 and 4 . When I queried it they said this was what my dentist had advised for me - odd- but couldn't explain what apts I hadn't been using. They couldn't explain why it was more economic either . Long story I'm dropping to 2 and 2 for less than the 28 and will pay for my third. That will still cost less. Too many of these big companies are trying to inflict charges. A 12 pound increase on every patient each month? That's a fair old load of cash in a big practice.

But it’s the day to day stuff that is why they are needing extractions
not being supervised brushing teeth, parents refusing to force the issue
using toothpaste without fluoride as it’s “toxic”
sugary diet
ignoring advice like not to rinse after brushing
no inter dental cleaning
skipping brushing

this is all really basic stuff that’s on the NHS website and doesn’t need a dentist

If it was an NHS appointment - NHS dentists are not allowed to charge patients for missed appointments.

NHS dental practices cannot impose a fee for missed NHS appointments.

But if you miss an appointment, the practice may give you a warning. If you miss multiple appointments without reasonable notice or explanation, the practice may decide not to offer you NHS treatment in the future.

If it’s private treatment, those appointments can be subject to missed appointment charges, depending on the practice’s policy.

@cryinginthechapel you are a better person than I, I couldn't stay for the bashing last night as the evening crowd gets worse.
@Mountainfrog yes, we should!!
@CleverSwan yes, you should go back and query it. They absolutely can't justify charging you for the treatment and a cancellation fee. There will be some sort of practice manager you should have it escalated to.

Well you know that’s rubbish anyway, the amount of people who drive expensive cars that they can’t afford, just to look good. It’s called finance, dear.

The amount of hate dentists (and GPs, vets and pharmacists) get on here is unreal. I have seen on countless threads people basically saying these professions should work for free because it’s healthcare. Why?? Why because someone has chosen a profession like this should they work for free? Food is essential to life. Should Sainsbury’s staff work for free? If we don’t have heat in our house people (especially the elderly or very young) might die. Should plumbers/gas engineers work for free?

If dentists earn that much money, why isn’t everyone doing it?? Just think. Do the training (I’m sure it’s really easy right?) and work for 5 years and quit! Apparently you’ll be a multi millionaire in that time! So why not?? Why not retrain??

I’m a hygienist. Have been doing it about 20 years. In all honesty, I would absolutely love to be doing something else. ANYTHING else. It was a fairly good profession years ago. The money was good. When I started I was on about 45-50k a year. 20 years ago that was really good! (But I will point out this is self employed. So no holiday pay, sick pay, maternity pay, no pension. Absolutely any time off you don’t get paid for. Come in late because of a doctors appointment? Pay is deducted. Christmas? Hardly earn anything in December due to bank holidays and practice being closed etc. Patient doesn’t turn up or cancels last min? I don’t get paid.) Do you want to know what I’m on now as a self employed hygienist? About 50-55k. So in 20 years my pay has technically gone up about 5k a year. But. Due to the job I have severe back problems and can’t work full time anymore so I don’t even earn that much. Due to health caused by the job I earn less than I earned 20 years ago. I am looking regularly for a way out of dentistry and really hope to achieve it within 5 years. I’ll likely have to sell my house and downsize but I’d still rather that than stay in dentistry.

A school friend of mine left university and worked for a bank as a graduate. 20 years later she earns over 150k a year. She works from home. She has a great life. I feel so utterly utterly stupid for the career choice I took. I struggle so hard with even getting doctors appointments because I can’t take time off as I can’t afford to lose the money. She also isn’t hated and told she should work for free on forums like this. Imagine telling someone working in an office job that if you don’t have any work to do for an hour your boss won’t pay you. There would be uproar!

If I could go back in time I would never ever do this job.

Anyway. Regarding the OP. No they should not be charging you for both a missed appointment and cancelled appointment. You absolutely should not be paying more than the treatment cost. It’s likely at that price though that the hygienist is private. Very few practices offer NHS hygiene. Hygienists cannot work directly for the NHS. We are contracted by the practice and they decide how it works and usually it is private as it would not be cost effective at all to do NHS hygiene.

Always try hard same her! My Dentist went private. Very nice .however was sent to hygienist very curt.have issues from being slapped by Dentist as a child. She was rough and unhelpful .have plan of 2 appointments per year.1 fo hygienist won't be seeing her again !

Poor bloody dentists, I can’t believe the bashing they’re getting on here. A last minute cancellation fee is absolutely standard in many places to stop people taking the piss. The NHS would save a fortune if it implemented this.

Dentist here too. The bashing on here is unbelievable. I too find it so strange that we’re begrudged a good living when other professions, nobody bats an eyelid. Those who don’t work in the dental industry clearly have no clue. I get tired of explaining the situation that so few of us are rolling around in cash driving sports cars and ripping off patients! We’re not a charity - even NHS practices are a business. Don’t expect us to work for pittance - I assure you many NHS practices are in the red.
OP, answering the original post - I don’t think a cancellation fee should be charged on top of the other charge. I think the receptionist made a mistake and I’d question it!

Well, having no or little NHS provision is not the fault of the dentists at all.

Thats down to funding, which is a 100% on this and previous governments to resolve.

As far as i'm concerned, dentists do a heck of a complex & skilled job, they deserve every penny.

A 60min appointment where the patient doesn't turn up, whats the dentist supposed to do?
Of course repeat offenders, should, normally be de listed.

Anyone moaning saying they earn too much? go retrain and become a dentist yourselves... easy fix isn't it?

I agree with you OP, it’s one or the other - either pay the cancellation fee or pay for the treatment - not both.

I forgot a dental hygienist appointment once and by the time I was 10 minutes late, they were calling me to see where I was. Did no-one call you? If you’d have been very close by you might have still been able to make it anyway. What if you hadn’t called them - how would they have told you about the charge?

💯 this. Everything you’ve said about the expenses of running the business plus the emotional stress of people upset about their pets….it’s an extremely stressful occupation/business and highly demoralising

Exactly.. and I said that to the receptionist when I called. If I hadn't have rung to "cancel" would you have added that fee?
And no, I didn't get a phone call... it's the first time I've ever missed an appointment so no idea what their usual fee/charge chasing procedure is... maybe they would've sprung it on me at my next appointment?

And just to add, it’s currently 9.07. I’m at work. (Got here at 8.30 to set up my surgery so that’s 30 mins that I don’t get paid for). My first patient is late. I have back to back 30 minute appointments all the way until lunch. I will try and rush him through but he may well complain. He might dither about asking me lots of questions before leaving my surgery. I will likely run late all morning now, getting more complaints. All because my first one was late. I don’t drink anything in the morning because I don’t have time to go to the loo.

I sympathise with the not being able to pee scenario. My husband has a desk job and mostly works from home. He actually can’t get his head around it. It’s massively intense. I actually quite like it when a patient doesn’t attend because then I can have a twenty minute breather…
( can’t believe I just admitted that. I’ll probably get a further bashing now!!!)

I'm not here to bash dentists but seriously you are talking about 30 mins setting up that you don't get paid for ? What about the 15 mins that it takes a shop assistant to get in, get sorted before they stand at a till? What about a teacher who prepares lessons for hours before and after lessons? Give me a break!

I also don’t get paid for the 30 mins it takes to clean up at the end. I also don’t get paid at ANY POINT in the day when a patient cancels or doesn’t turn up. Imagine telling a shop assistant if they don’t have any customers they won’t get paid!

I actually agree with you about teachers. I think they get the shittest deal of everyone. If I had a choice to do teaching or stay in dentistry I’d stay in dentistry. I wouldn’t blame every single teacher for quitting. It sounds awful. My point isn’t that dentists have it THE WORST OF EVERYONE, I never said that. I was replying to people that seemed to think dentists have it piss easy and are earning shit tons of money for doing fuck all.

I don't think people were saying a cancellation charge is unreasonable but a double charge was and I imagine that was probably a bit of a dopey receptionist.

Surely they can only charge one or other. If you're paying for the treatment they haven't lost out so shouldn't be paying the cancellation fee. If you're paying a cancellation fee thar should be to offset the lost income

Charging you both is wrong

I'd be paying the cancellation fee and nothing else

maybe it was a misunderstanding and it was a cancellation charge and a deposit towards the next appointment

Thank-you everyone for the replies...
I've spoken to the receptionist staff again and they finally got back to me to say that they've charged me for my next appointment and a fee for missing this one.
I think I was between 2 policies (they've just been taken over by a new company) and they didn't know what to charge me... I've never paid upfront and I'd paid the fees before making my next appointment... a bit of back tracking on their behalf but all sorted.
Happy to pay the missed appointment fee, my fault.

Also, didn't intend this thread to be a dentist bashing 🤦‍♀️ I've been at my dentists for 22years and never had a problem 😅

FWIW I really like my dentist and the £800 bill I got for a couple of teeth that spontaneously decided to shatter was more than fair as they were repaired and I could eat again.

some of us really do appreciate your work and dedication. I would not spend my days looking in someone’s mouth for that sort of money - so thank you for your work.

You are welcome. That’s really sweet