Goldhawk Dental Practice Policies
Here you will find all the practice and patient policies that are related to Goldhawk Dental Practice.
Practice Owner
The owner and principal dentist of Goldhawk Dental Practice is Bhavisha Thakrar.
Making & Cancelling Appointments
We always try to arrange appointments at a time convenient to our patients. For this reason, we have late evening sessions on Mondays. If you have made an appointment which you subsequently find you cannot keep, please give as much notice as possible so we can give the appointment to another patient who may need to see us at short notice. If you give us less than 24 hours’ notice a late cancellation charge from £15 per may be made, and maybe more based on the length of the booked appointment time.
Cancelling Appointments
Please inform us at least 24 hours before the appointment time, if you wish to cancel. If you fail to attend an appointment without notice you will automatically receive a charge of £1 per minute with a maximum charge of £30. Any subsequent appointment will also be removed from your appointment list.
Data Security Policy
This Policy is to be read in conjunction with the Data Protection Policy.
Goldhawk Dental Practice is required to safeguard the security of personal data held by the
practice.
This objective is achieved by every member of the practice team, i.e. all Company Personnel
complying with this policy.
All Company Personnel contracts and agreements contain a confidentiality clause.
Access to personal data is only on a “need to know” basis. Access to information is
monitored, and breaches of security will be dealt with seriously and swiftly, and you
understand the Caldicott Principles
We have procedures in place to ensure that personal data is regularly reviewed, updated, and
deleted in a confidential manner when no longer required. For example, we keep patient
records for at least 11 years or until the patient is aged 25 – whichever is longer.
All staff will receive training during their induction period on the safe handling of data and
how data is used, stored and shared within our practice.
Personal data is only taken from the practice premises in exceptional circumstances and
when authorised by the DPO. No personal data is to be taken from the premises, and it must
never be left unattended in a car or in a public place.
Records are to be kept in a lockable cabinet or locked/password-protected computer, which
is not easily accessible by patients or visitors to the practice.
Efforts have been made to secure the practice against theft by, for example, using intruder
alarms, lockable windows, and doors that should remain locked at suitable times, particularly
when leaving the practice at night.
The practice has a business continuity plan in place in case of a disaster. This includes
procedures set out for protecting and restoring personal data.
Information held on the computer
Passwords are only known to those who require access to the information, are changed
regularly and are not written down or kept near or on the computer for others to see.
Daily and weekly backups of computerized data are taken and stored off-site.
Back-ups are also tested at prescribed intervals to ensure that the information being stored is
usable – should it be needed.
Staff using practice computers will undertake computer training to avoid unintentional
deletion or corruption of information.
Dental computer systems all have a complete audit trail facility – preventing the erasure or
overwriting of data. The system records details of any amendments made to data, who made
them and when.
Payment Policy
- It is our practice policy to give patients full information about the cost of their dental work before any treatment is undertaken. An explanation of NHS charges and how we calculate our private fees can be explained by your dentist. If you need more information please contact reception.
- A written estimate and treatment plan will be provided for all dental treatment.
- We offer patients a range of payment options, depending on their needs.
- You may pay for your dental care by cash / credit card /debit card. Patients are also allowed to join any insurance scheme which will cover NHS charges or Private treatment. Currently, we do not accept Denplan scheme. Please ask our receptionist for further information.
- We try to make payment as straightforward as possible
- Payment has to be made either before or on the day of completion of treatment and not the whole course of treatment. A course of treatment may contain more than one appointment. If you have more than one appointment and you have an outstanding account, you will not be seen until the account is paid. We reserve the right to cancel all further appointments if payment is not paid.
- If the account is not paid after 48hours you will incur an administration and a late penalty charge. This will be added on every week until the account is cleared. During this period you will be receiving letters to inform you as to what is happening.
- If you receive more than 2 letters of warning, then you will be deregistered unless full outstanding amount is paid.
REFUNDS
We aim to provide the highest quality of NHS and private dental care and services to our patients. Occasionally, however, patients are not happy with the result or the treatment may need to be redone.
We therefore make the following refunds for treatments:
- A crown, bridge or veneer needing to be replaced within a year of placement, a full refund will be given.
- If the patient is still dissatisfied with a denture after necessary adjustments have been made a full refund will be made on the condition that the dentures are returned to the practice.
Emergency Appointments
If you find that you have a dental emergency during normal surgery hours you should contact the practice for advice. We will make arrangements for you to be seen as quickly as possible. If the emergency occurs when the practice is closed, details of who to call will be given by the answer machine. We will ensure that, where appropriate, you are seen as quickly as possible.
I will of course do my best to provide you with a high standard of dental care and service. If you feel that you have cause for complaint, I would encourage you to raise it with Practice Management. We have a complaints procedure which aims to resolve any problems to our patients’ complete satisfaction.
I hope that you are pleased with the dental care and service which we will provide for you. If you have any queries about the content of this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me.
In our practice we will
- Justify the trust our patients have placed in us
- Listen to patients’ views and learn from them
- Communicate with patients in a courteous, friendly, professional manner
- Provide patients with the standard of care that we would expect to receive ourselves
- Make sure that patients receive full information about our services, their treatment and its cost
- Provide advice and treatment outside normal surgery hours where necessary
- Stand by the promises we make
- Refer patients for further professional advice and treatment where appropriate
- Are committed to ensuring that we keep our professional skills and knowledge up-to-date
In our practice we will
- At all times respect our patients’ confidentiality
- Ensure that patients should have to wait no longer than 15 minutes to be seen
- Manage our appointments system so that treatment appointments are booked no more than 4 weeks ahead
- Deal with every telephone call promptly – callers will not be asked to ‘hold’ without first finding out why the call has been made
- Deal with correspondence within five days of receipt
- Provide patients with a treatment plan and estimate of costs for each new course of treatment. No treatment will be undertaken without the patient’s full and specific consent
- Make patients aware of our policy for collecting fees. Requests for payment will always be made courteously
- Make the practice policy for dealing with complaints known to patients. All complaints will be treated sympathetically and according to the agreed procedures.
- Provide the highest standards of infection control
- Provide any emergency treatment required during practice hours as soon as is reasonably practicable. Out of hours, an emergency rota will operate and details will be displayed at the entrance to the practice and recorded on the telephone answering machine. This information will be correct at all times.
In return, we would like you to
- Participate in your dental treatment, particularly any advice about prevention and diet that we have asked you to continue at home
- Arrive on time for your appointment. Please give the practice at least 24 hours notice if you are unable to keep your appointment. [We may charge for missed appointments where we have not been notified, we may need to review future provision of treatment for you at the practice]
- Treat our staff courteously; they will do their best to help meet your needs