18/12/2025
A word on illnesses... (A long post, but please bear with me)
As you all know, this time of year there are lots of bugs going around and illnesses are more common. This causes issues for me as it significantly increases the amount of last minute cancellations and costs me a lot of money. I've had some issues lately with people contesting this policy, and sometimes even being quite unpleasant.
I would however like to draw people's attention to my cancellation policy, which all clients should already be very familiar with, but can also be found here: www.wgtherapy.com/patient-information
As it states in the policy, these terms are enforced 'regardless of reason' (for cancelling). However, for some reason a lot of people think that being ill gives them an exemption which excuses them from not having to pay anything, often citing that they wouldn't want me to catch what they have as the justification. Whilst I don't want people to turn up ill, and that you shouldn't receive treatment whilst unwell as it could further compromise your immune system, it still creates major issues for me, as not only has my time gone to waste, but I'm then expected to go to work and not get paid. After all, I can't put all my bills on hold because someone has a cold - for instance I can't just pay a bit less on my mortgage this month. In essence, I shouldn't have to choose between my health and my finances, just like anyone in an employed role wouldn't tolerate it if they were asked to lose pay because their colleagues were off sick. Please bear in mind that just one late cancellation per week would cost me over £2.5K a year if I didn't enforce my policy, so the fact that people are cancelling for good reason unfortunately doesn't offer much consolation.
Whilst I genuinely appreciate the continued business from my regulars, I don't think that is a valid exemption as I believe in treating everyone equally. Besides, it still costs me the same money if I let someone off whether they are a regular or an occasional client.
If I had to cancel appointments last minute because I was ill or for any other reason, then I would never expect my clients to lose £55 as a result. The financial burden would be on me, despite losing much more than £55 for a day's work. It would be ridiculous if I said something along the lines of: 'I'd like you to still pay for the appointment because I didn't plan on being ill, you're benefitting from me not passing my illness on to you, I turn up regularly and I don't cancel very often'. But unfortunately these are exactly the type of messages I get from people when the situation is reversed.
Remember also that if you go to the theatre, a concert, sporting event, cinema or book train tickets and you had to cancel last minute because you were ill, you would have to accept you will lose your money, unless you can sell your place to someone else, so in my view my business is no different.
If I let people off due to illness it also wouldn't be fair on people cancelling for other equally-genuine reasons such as a car breakdown - this creates a dilemma about whether they should pay, and it gets to the point where you could argue they should be let off as well, in which case there wouldn't be any point in having a policy at all.
Regardless of your subjective view of whether this policy is right or wrong, the objective fact is I can't afford to lose the amount of money that I would if I wasn't enforcing strict terms, so I would have to recover the money from somewhere else. Granted, my policy is a lot more strict than most physios, osteopaths and chiropractors, but the major difference here is that my prices are generally significantly lower. I currently charge £55 an hour or £28 for 30 mins. Locally, physios will charge around £90 an hour or over £70 for 40 minutes. Osteopaths/Chiropractors are generally £50+ for 30 minutes. So with this being the case these people can probably afford to take the odd hit in cancellations. But on top of this, you may still end up paying something for a cancellation, albeit not as much. Unfortunately it doesn't work both ways, much like if you were to book a Premier Inn you can't just have the flex rate policy for the price of the saver rate...
My personal opinion is that my way is fairer, as I am thankful for the fact that most of my clients are understanding and reliable, and I don't think it's fair for the reliable majority to pay a lot more to account for the unreliable minority, but like I say, the loss has to be compensated for somehow. Another potential way to mitigate the loss would be to invest less in my business, meaning I'd be less able to invest in training courses to improve my services like I do now. So I just wanted to make people aware of my stance on the matter, and that if I do ask you to pay for a cancellation, it's not out of greed or lack of sympathy, it's only after all other options have been exhausted; as I do first try to find a solution that works for everyone, but sometimes it's unavoidable for the reasons I've just explained.
Additional safety guidelines are in place to protect all clients from the risks of the Coronavirus. Please familiarise yourself with these measures.
