The practice is committed to providing a high standard of treatment and service to its patients. To achieve this goal it is important that treatment fees are collected efficiently.

All patients are provided with a treatment plan and estimate before the treatment commences which has details of the payment terms and the fees payable for treatment.

To avoid unnecessary costs or inefficiency fees are collected before each treatment plan has been completed, with the fees payable as treatment progresses, with the full balance due before the final appointment.

In the eventuality that fees are outstanding at the end of the treatment plan, the balance is collected at the last visit of the course of treatment.

If there are fees outstanding after the last visit, the practice will write to or telephone the patient to request payment. Reasonable steps will be taken to collect outstanding fees before a third party agent is instructed or legal action is initiated.

If the patient has a complaint about the treatment provided, this is taken very seriously and will be fully taken into account.

The detailed procedure for collecting fees is in Patient Accounts and Debt Management (M 212).