Reply from Barnfield Dental Studio
Mon, 08 Jan 2018 13:12:27 Z

Thank you very much for your feedback on our service. We always value any form of feedback so that we can try and improve our service. We apologise and we are very disappointed that you were not happy with our payment policy. Perhaps if I explain the reason behind it, then it might clarify matters and remove any possible confusion. We are a very busy NHS practice with limited resources. In the past, we have had to spend a lot of staff resources chasing up bad debt, which meant we had less time to spend on providing good quality care for our patients. Therefore, for many years now, we have implemented our payment policy so that we can spend more time on caring for our patients and less on chasing up bad debt. The policy states that when NHS courses of treatment have been started, that the patient will need to pay upfront with booking of their treatment appointments. For private courses of treatment, the patient will pay 50% of the cost for laboratory treatment (for example crowns) upfront and other treatment on a pay as you go basis. However, if a patient missed their private treatment appointment or cancel with less than 24 hours’ notice, they can be charged up to 50% of the cost for that specific appointment. Patients are never charged for late cancellations or missed NHS appointments. I understand that if this was not explained clearly to you , that you might feel aggrieved with the process and for that I really apologise. Reception staff usually try and accommodate patients with different appointment options but this does not mean that the first available appointment will necessarily suit each patient. Some of the dentists have busier diaries than others due to perhaps different working hours. Perhaps we can try and accommodate you sooner by trying to find a treatment slot with a different dentist so that you do not have to wait quite as long. We also run a short notice waiting list; if any slots become available sooner than your booked appointment, then we can contact you to see if this is convenient for you. Please let us know if we can assist with this this because we would like to resolve the matter for you. Once again, thank you for your feedback and I hope that we can continue to provide you with the good quality care we aim to provide for all our NHS patients. If you wish to discuss the matter further or would like us to add you to our cancellation list or to see if any appointments are available with a different dentist then please do not hesitate to contact the surgery. Kind regards Dalene Theunissen Barnfield Dental Studio Studio