Cancellation & Attendance Policy
Please be considerate when cancelling appointments and give as much notice as possible.
Typically we will have exclusively reserved an ongoing therapy time for you and when an appointment is cancelled, even within the cancellation period, the slot is rarely filled by another client.
We appreciate that unforeseen life events and illnesses do occur from time to time however, missing appointments disrupts the therapy plan and interrupts your/your child’s progress towards their goals. If for whatever reason you are unable to attend a session in the clinic, you are encouraged to use the therapist's allocated time in a way that still contributes to the ongoing success of the treatment plan.
Examples include:
● Phone or telehealth (video conferencing) consultation
● Liaison with health professionals/educators
● Parent / therapist discussion / goal planning
● Reviewing data, progress and goals
● Creating resources / visual / home exercise program
If you make a short-notice cancellation and do not give 24 hours notice before the scheduled service booking time, Caswell Healthcare will charge up to 100% of the session fee.
There is no charge for appointments cancelled greater than 24 hours before the scheduled time. We will also not charge for appointments that are cancelled within 24hrs but are rescheduled as a replacement appointment within 7 days. If we do not receive any communication cancelling an appointment and you do not attend, then the full fee is payable and we will not be able to use the allocated time for other activities if the session time slot has passed.
Cancelling an Appointment
The easiest way is to respond to the original reminder text message with "N" - in real-time the system will be updated and your therapist notified. You can do this even if you have already responded and things change. Please only reply "Y" or "N" as it is all the system recognises.
NOTE: SMS reminders are sent as a courtesy and should not be relied upon as we can only control sending the message and not your receipt of it.
Cancellations can also be made either by phone call, voicemail message or email to our Client Services
Team (02 9440 1333 / enquiries@caswellhealthcare.com.au). Voice messages are converted to text and the team is notified in real time.
The time of receipt of the communication is logged and used to determine if the cancellation period was met. NOTE: Cancellations must be notified through the above channels and notifying your therapist will not be accepted.
Should appointments not be consistently attended generally or for more than two weeks in a block for any reason, we reserve the right to release your standard appointment to another client. When wishing to resume therapy, we will do our best to find an alternative time or therapist for you or alternatively add you to our waitlist at your preferred time.
Duty of Care
Please appreciate that we have a duty of care for all our clients and our team members and if a client or support person is unwell and attends face to face we may require that a mask be worn or that the session be converted to telehealth or re-scheduled to another time within the next 7 days. Should this not be possible we may charge up to 100% of the session fee.
Payment of Cancellation Fees
Caswell Healthcare will make reasonable steps by phone, email and/or SMS to contact you when there is a history of frequent cancellations or missed appointments to help problem-solve with you. We do expect fees to be paid for missed appointments within the same week as the missed appointment.
Cancellation fees will be applied automatically on your account by our client services team. If a cancellation fee has been charged, it must be paid prior to the provision of any further services. Neither our client services team nor your therapist has the authority to waive this fee, however, you are welcome to share any exceptional, unexpected or unforeseen circumstances that may apply and these will be relayed to our Accounts Manager.
Please note that Intensives and Group / Buddy sessions require a non-refundable prepayment of the full program to secure placement.
