Please help us improve our efficiency!

First of all, I hope you are enjoying the glorious weather!

The last 12 months have certainly been challenging and we are all beginning to feel the effects of rising costs. At Hermitage Dental Practice, we’ve seen our operating costs soar significantly compared to this time last year.

The number of missed appointments and short notice cancellations are also rising unfortunately, which wastes valuable treatment time, lengthens our waiting lists and eventually pushes costs up further.

We are passionate about providing the best service we can for our patients whilst keeping costs down and so running an efficient appointment diary is where it all starts.

What can you do to help?

We ask that you give us at least 48 hours’ notice if you are unable to make it to your appointment – we are then able to offer your treatment time to someone else who needs it.

We’ll be asking for 50% deposits to secure treatment appointments. If you miss or cancel an appointment with less than 48 hours’ notice, your deposit will help a little towards our operating costs – thus helping us avoid raising our prices unnecessarily.

We will also ask non-members to pay in advance for Dental Health Reviews and Hygiene appointments. These are the most frequently failed visits and this has a marked impact on our self- employed Dentists, Hygienists and Dental Therapists who depend on your attendance for their income.

What will we do to help you?

Reminders! Three days before your appointment, you will receive an email via our patient bridge software with important documents for you to complete following the link online. Sometimes these emails do go to your junk, if you transfer the first email to your inbox, it will prevent this from happening in the future. If you have not provided us with an email address you will receive a text message.

We’ve made it easier to contact us!

We have two dedicated receptionists answering your communications during our opening hours. We have an automated answerphone system to allow you to leave messages when the practice is closed and our reception team will call you back!

You can also respond to email reminders via patient bridge 48 hours in advance or email us on reception@hermitagedental.co.uk.

You can also use the contact page on our website.

We aim to be fair to our patients and widely publicise our cancellation policy as much as possible. This information is printed on all appointment cards, in our electronic communications, on our website and displayed in our practice.

We will always take exceptional circumstances into account if the unforeseen happens and on the rare occasion you have the need to cancel an appointment at short notice.

We really appreciate your understanding in helping to run an efficient appointment system.

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Best Wishes from the Team at Hermitage Dental Practice.