Somerset mother complains after practice refuses to treat her family over missed appointments
A mother of three from Somerset has complained after a local dental practice refused to treat her children over missed appointments.
Catherine Farinha was informed that she would be unable to take her children to Wellington Dental Practice due to missing appointments. When she emailed to complain about the situation, the practice also refused to treat her and she has since moved to a different clinic.
Mrs Farinha was reminded that she had missed three dental appointments in the last 24 months and the team said that due to this, and a subsequent breakdown in communication, they would no longer be able to treat her or her three children.
In response to the complaint from Mrs Farinha, practice manager, Daphne Kasai, said that the decision to remove patients from the list is never “taken lightly” but refused to comment further on this specific case due to patient confidentiality. Ms Kasai added that the primary aim is to provide every patient with the best possible service and this is why the practice urges patients who cannot attend appointments to cancel well in advance so that slots can be offered to others in need of treatment. The practice offers a text reminder service to ensure that patients are aware of upcoming appointments.
Mrs Farinha is very angry about the situation, as she claims to have tried to contact the practice in nearly all of the cases where appointments have been missed. On some occasions, she explained, she has not been able to get through to talk to a receptionist. She believes that the practice has not handled the problem appropriately and her husband, who was also a patient, will now also be looking for another dentist.
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