Cancellation / non-attendance policy

Quick summary version

We need 24 hours notice if you need to cancel or reschedule an appointment/group.

If you cancel within this time period or miss the appointment/group, you will be charged for that appointment/group that was reserved for you.

If you are able to reschedule the appointment/group within 48 hours, we will waive the charge for the missed session.

This policy applies for exercise groups as well as individual appointments.

Our aim has always been a policy that is fair to all.

• fairness for patients who are looking for an appointment
• fairness to therapists who have the time reserved in their appointment book
• fairness to our great front desk staff who are taking phone calls and trying to schedule appointments for people in need

All we want is to be able to offer an appointment or a group time to someone else that needs if it, if you can’t make it or no longer need that appointment time.

The vast majority of our clientele do the right thing (or really try to do the right thing) and that is brilliant. Thanks!!! ?

To be clear, the reason for having a policy is not because we want to charge it.  We don’t – we want people to attend their appointments and get better.

Despite that, we do need to have a policy that is fair and enforced. We have made the mistake in the past of being ‘easy’, and it doesn’t work. It creates confusion.

We also think that the physio should be paid fairly for their time and they should feel like their time is valued. 

The guts of our policy

• We ask for 24 hours notice if you can’t make an appointment/group time
• If you cancel within 24 hours or don’t arrive for your appointment/group time, you need to pay for that time that was reserved for you with the physio.
  
  NB: This applies for both exercise groups or physio treatment.

Having said all of that, we recognise that things happen in life which make it hard or impossible to give 24 hours notice, like sickness or medical emergencies.

Taking that into account, we have recently added this to our policy.

If you cancel with less than 24 hours notice or not arrive, we will suggest that you reschedule within the next 48 hours, we will not charge you for the session that you have missed.

We will do our best to find you another time with your therapist.

If you can’t rebook in that timeframe, please know that there will be the cost of the missed session to fix up next time.

We hope that you can see this as a fair addition to our policy and something that will make the system easier for all.

Consistency of the policy

In the past, we have been inconsistent with our implementation of our cancellation policy.

This has lead to misunderstandings at times, and difficulties for our brilliant front desk staff and for our clientèle.  

So from now on, we are going to be consistent!

We aim for everyone to hear this policy a few times so we can be confident that everyone is aware of it.  Sorry if you get sick of hearing it, but it is better than not knowing about it and being charged!

If you have any questions, please send us an email or message us at m.me/AdelaideWestPhysio, or discuss when you are in next.