At Spectrum Speech Pathology, we:
- prepare for each of our client appointments properly; and
- limit the number of clients we see each day to ensure we are providing a quality service to each client.
If you book an appointment with us and don’t turn up – or if you contact us to cancel an appointment with less than one working days’ notice (48 hours prior to your appointment time) – three things happen:
- We lose the time we have spent preparing for your appointment – time we could have spent helping another client or helping you in another way.
- We may not have enough time to reschedule another client for your appointment time, which reduces the total number of clients we can help that day. This is not fair for people on our waiting list.
- We lose income, which makes it more difficult for us to invest adequately in our workers and resources to provide you and other clients with a quality service
Our services and supports are most effective when we trust and value each other’s work. We know that unexpected things happen – e.g., cars break down, people get sick, important travel commitments crop up at short notice. But ”no shows” and late cancellations (also known as “failures to attend” or “did not attend” (“FTAs” and “DNAs”) – particularly if they happen more than once – can interfere with our trust in each other and, over time, can affect a client’s overall quality of care. We take pride in our work and don’t want this to happen.
Agreement
As noted in our Terms and Conditions, booking a face-to-face or telehealth service, support, assessment, therapy session, intervention session, coaching, consultation, training, intensive, workshop, seminar or other appointment with us (collectively, an “Appointment“) creates a legally binding contract – the “Agreement” – between you and us.
The parties to this Agreement are:
- the person who makes the booking, referred to in this Agreement as “you”; and
- us
By making the booking on behalf of yourself or a child under your care, you confirm that you are authorised to agree to these terms and conditions.
We provide our services and supports to you subject to this Agreement. As always with a binding contract, you should read through it carefully before making a booking for an Appointment. We may change the terms and conditions of this Agreement, but the latest version will always appear on our website at www.spectrumspeech.com.au and you can also ask any of our workers for a copy at no cost. If you continue to use our services after changes have been made to this Agreement, you will be considered to have accepted the changes to the Agreement between us.
Appointment Bookings
When you first book with us – the booking won’t be confirmed until we send you an Appointment confirmation email, even if you’ve transferred money to us. We reserve the right to refuse a booking for any lawful reason.
Usually, we will email you your initial Appointment confirmation (to the email address you provided us when you first contacted us) after the booking has been confirmed. If you have not received your appointment confirmation within 48 hours of a confirmed booking, please check your spam or junk email folder or filter and, if it’s not there, please contact us. It is your responsibility to ensure that your email is set up to allow you to receive your email confirmation, and we cannot accept any liability for any consequences of you not doing so.
The fees and other charges for the initial Appointment and each subsequent Appointment for the calendar year is set out in our initial Appointment confirmation email and must be paid in full, and in the currency stated, by cash, debit and/or credit card on or before the date of the relevant Appointment.
Cancellations, changes to bookings and failures to attend appointments
Consistent with common practice, we will accept cancellations up to 48 hours before an Appointment. A business day for us includes Monday – Friday. You must notify us by telephone and we must receive your telephone call at least 48 hours prior to your appointment time. Our current contact details are set out: Ashwood – 9885 0504; Moonee Ponds – 9370 1200
For Holiday Programs, notification of cancellation must be made 4 business days prior to the commencement of the program, otherwise a cancellation fee will be applicable as per the application terms.
What happens if you fail to attend or cancel an Appointment without enough notice
(a) If you fail to attend, cancel or seek to reschedule an Appointment with less than 48 hours notice:
(i) you must pay us 100% of the Appointment fee; and
(ii) if you have already paid us part or all of the fee, you will not receive a refund, for such Appointment, except, at our sole discretion, in exceptional circumstances.
(b) If you fail to attend more than one Appointment in a (school) term, a full cancellation fee will apply, regardless of the reason. In such circumstances, we reserve the right to place you back on our waiting list without notice.
If we need to cancel an Appointment for any reason, we may do so at any time before the Appointment is scheduled to begin. We do not expect this to happen except in exceptional circumstances, and we’ll refund any fees you’ve paid us for the Appointment, or offer you a choice of alternative dates for the Appointment, either in person or Telehealth, but we won’t be liable to compensate you for any other expenses you’ve incurred in connection with the Appointment. We will try to notify you of cancellations, but we can’t guarantee this, especially when an Appointment is cancelled at short notice (e.g. if your therapist is ill).
Attendance and expected conduct
Please ensure you arrive on time for each Appointment. For the benefit of other clients, we will not admit you to your Appointment any later than 15 minutes after the scheduled Appointment time. You will remain liable for the Appointment fee and we will not issue any refund in this event.
We reserve the right to refuse admission to you and/or any person under your care or ask you and/or any person under your care to leave our premises if we think you and/or they are behaving in a disruptive way or in a way that violates our lease, or in a way that is likely to cause damage, nuisance, offence or injury to any person. You will remain liable for the Appointment fee and we will not issue any refund in this event.
By entering into this Agreement, you agree to ensure that you and all people under your care attending an Appointment under a booking made by you comply with all health and safety and other rules and regulations applicable to our premises. You also agree not to bring onto our premises any illegal or hazardous items or to allow such items to be brought onto our premises by a person under your care. You also agree to comply with any reasonable request by a worker at our premises (for example, and without limitation, requests relating to infection control or the health and safety of our staff).
