Please familiarise yourself with our cancellation policy before booking an appointment.

Cancellation Policy

At Access, we pride ourselves to provide our patients with the best services and high-quality care. Therefore, each appointment not cancelled at an appropriate time means a loss of appointment to our patients who could have booked in at that given time. By introducing this cancellation policy, we hope patients will consider cancelling their appointments so that others may access them if required.

Due to the high demand for bulk billing testing appointments and an increased number of non- attendances and cancellations for testing appointments, we will be introducing the following fees. These fees will apply to appointments that are not attended or not cancelled 24 hours before the appointment time.

At Access, we reserve the right to charge a non-attendance and cancellation fee of $100.00.

If an appointment is missed, a non-attendance and cancellation fee will be generated to be paid before your next appointment. If a third appointment is missed or not cancelled appropriately, an account will be generated, and you will be informed of possible suspension to services in our clinics until all invoices are paid.

After two attempts of non-attendance, Access will notify your General Practitioner or referring doctor of this non-compliance of attendance. You will be discharged from our services and require a new referral for an appointment.

Procedure

Our practice has systems in place to track and, if necessary, follow up on patients who cancelled or did not attend a scheduled appointment (DNA).

Cancellations and missed appointments need to be marked accordingly in the practice software. The receptionist needs to follow up with a phone patient for a welfare check and advise them of our DNA policy and re-book if required.

All attempts to contact patients that have cancelled or DNA must also be documented in the practice software.

The responsibilities of the practitioner and our practice reflect the recognition that the practitioner-patient relationship is a special one based on trust. It is characterised by the practitioner having special knowledge and skills that the patient generally does not have.

We record all cancelled and DNA appointments in the appointment diary in our practice.

If a patient arrives 10 minutes later than the scheduled time, they could be marked as DNA and reschedule their appointment, depending on time constraints. We always first try and rearrange if possible.

The receptionist running the clinic must attempt to contact the patients that are late or DNA on the day and leave notes on the booking stating the attempts made.

If the patient is uncontactable, this should be well documented on the booking notes of the missed appointment. The patient should be emailed after the missed appointment and advised to call back to rebook.

After two missed appointments, the GP should be notified with a fax or letter and a phone call to inform them of the patient’s failure to attend. Notify the General Practitioner that we cannot make further appointments, and we hand the continuity of care back to them.

It is up to the GP to confirm the necessity of the appointment with the patient.

If a patient cancels within 24 hours of a scheduled appointment, the booking must be marked as a ‘no-show’. If the patient wants to re-book the appointment, the original must be left and still marked as a ‘no-show’ with any new appointments re-created. The initial appointment must not be moved to ensure a patient track record.