Booking Terms & Cancellation Policy

When you book an appointment, you are entering into a contract with Ben Katz, for the provision of osteopathic health services at Osteopathy East, 41 Mare Street, E8 4RP, on the date and time you have selected. To secure the appointment, payment is required in full at the time of booking. The contract is completed when payment is made. You will receive an email confirming the date and time of your appointment and the terms of the contract shortly after the booking is completed.

The nature of osteopathic healthcare

The service provided

When you book an appointment, you are engaging my services as a registered osteopath. I will use my clinical training and expertise to conduct an evaluation and formulate a diagnostic hypothesis based on the clinical data available to me. I will make recommendations and provide advice based on this working diagnosis. This will typically include a course of osteopathic treatment but there may be certain circumstances where osteopathic treatment is contraindicated or other forms of medical investigation and treatment are required. Since my first duty as a healthcare professional is to act in the best interests of my patients, there can be no guarantee that osteopathic manual treatment will be provided at your appointment.

Outcomes cannot be guaranteed

Health is a complex phenomenon and the outcomes of all interventions in healthcare are inherently unpredictable. Whilst I will take great care to ensure my treatment is safe and effective, some patients do experience side effects from treatment and some issues do not respond to osteopathic care, so there is no guarantee that your symptoms will improve. If it becomes clear at any point during your care that you are not responding to treatment or another form of treatment may be more appropriate, I will inform you of this without delay and recommend an appropriate course of action.

Statutory cancellation rights for online bookings

When you book online, you have a statutory right to cancel the contract within 14 days; this starts the day after you complete the booking. If you change your mind within this period, you can cancel by notifying me in writing via email at [email protected]. If you cancel within the 14 day period, I will be happy to reschedule your appointment or provide a refund for any portion of the service that has not already been provided. A template cancellation form is located at thelondonosteopath.com/cancellation-form.

Appointments within the cooling-off period

By scheduling an appointment using this online booking service, you are expressly requesting that your osteopathic care starts on the date and time you have selected. If you book an appointment within the 14 day cooling-off period, once the appointment has taken place, you will no longer be able to claim a refund for the service that has been provided.

For individual appointments, this means that no refunds will be provided after the session has taken place. For treatment packages, if you request a refund within the cooling-off period, I will retain a portion of the payment to cover any sessions that have already taken place.

Making changes to your appointment outside the cooling-off period

After 14 days, and for all bookings made in person, the cancellation policy below applies.

Cancellation policy for individual appointments

If you need to cancel or reschedule your appointment, please give me as much notice as possible. I ask for a minimum of 48 hours’ notice, to allow time to fill the space you have reserved. The more notice you give me, the more likely it is that I will be able to fill the appointment.

The terms below apply to all bookings made in person and to online bookings cancelled more than 14 days after the initial booking was made. For online bookings cancelled within the 14 day cooling-off period, please see the statutory cancellation rights outlined above. For package appointments, please see the package terms below.

Notice period for cancellations

• If you give more than 48 hours notice: I will be happy to reschedule your appointment without charge, or provide a refund on request.
• If you give less than 48 hours notice: I’ll try to fill the slot you have booked by offering it to others who may be waiting. If I’m able to fill the slot, I will offer you the option to reschedule or request a refund; if I can’t fill the space, I will normally retain the full fee to cover the lost appointment.
• If you fail to notify me that you are unable to attend: you will not be eligible for a refund; the full fee will be retained as I will not be able to fill the space.

I appreciate that life is not always predictable. If you are unable to give the required notice, or need to cancel for reasons outside your control, I may offer to reschedule your appointment without charge or offer a refund as a gesture of goodwill.

Cancellation process

When you request to cancel your appointment outside the statutory cooling-off period, I will email you to confirm that the appointment has been cancelled and let you know whether you are eligible to reschedule or request a refund. If you choose to reschedule, the new appointment must take place within 90 days of the one you have cancelled.

Cancellation fees

If you paid with a credit or debit card, eligible refund requests outside the statutory cooling-off period will be subject to a small deduction to cover Stripe’s non-refundable transaction fees, which I would otherwise be unable to recover.

If I am unable to provide the service on the date and time you have requested

I will always do everything in my power to make myself available to provide the service at the time you have booked. On rare occasions, I may be unable to attend the clinic due to illness, childcare issues, or some other unexpected emergency.

If I have to cancel your appointment for any reason, I will notify you in advance, with as much notice as possible, and offer to reschedule your appointment without charge or provide a refund. If you request a refund for an appointment I have cancelled without any prior request to cancel from you, I will not charge a cancellation fee.

Package terms

I offer a modest discount on packages of three or six sessions, to make it easier to plan ahead if you need an intensive course of treatment or require ongoing care. Packages booked online are subject to the statutory cancellation rights set out above. For bookings made in person, and online bookings cancelled outside of the statutory 14 day cooling-off period, the following terms apply.

Package expiry

For all packages, unused sessions expire at the end of the fixed period set out below; the expiry date is calculated from the date of the first package appointment:

• 3 session packages: sessions must be used within six months
• 6 session packages: sessions must be used within twelve months.

Rescheduling package appointments

Outside of the 14 day statutory cooling-off period, you can reschedule your package sessions at any time, so long as you give a minimum of 48 hours notice and the rescheduled sessions take place before the package expiry date; failure to give 48 hours notice will normally result in your sessions being counted as complete. In exceptional circumstances, I may offer to reschedule missed appointments without charge, as a gesture of goodwill.

Rescheduling a session does not change the package expiry date. However, if I have to cancel one of your sessions, I’ll extend the expiry date to make up for the delay.

Cancelling unused package appointments

Completed sessions are non-refundable, but you can cancel the remaining unused sessions at any time before your package expires.

If you cancel outside the statutory 14 day cooling-off period, you will forfeit the discount for all sessions within the package, including any that you have already used. This means that the fee for any completed sessions will be calculated at the full individual appointment rate when I calculate your refund.

In addition, Stripe’s non-refundable transaction fees will be deducted from any refund, and a cancellation fee of £20 will be charged to cover the admin time involved in processing the cancellation.

If we mutually agree at any point that further treatment is not clinically appropriate, I will refund any unused sessions at the package rate, with no deductions.