Keep it or cancel it

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GP appointment? Don't need it? Cancel it!

We know people forget things, cancelling GP appointments being one of them. Remember to cancel your appointment if you don't need it.

How to Cancel an Appointment

If you are unable to keep your appointment, please give us as much notice as possible so that your appointment can be offered to someone else.

If you are cancelling please telephone us as soon as possible, and at least 30 minutes before your appointment time. This will enable us to offer your appointment to someone else.

Alternatively you can cancel your appointment online via, Patient Access or The NHS App if you are signed up to the service.

Please remember that there may be a shortage of appointments and when you fail to attend you have prevented someone else from being seen in your place. On average about 230 appointments are missed each month

Cancellations notified less than 30 minutes before the appointment time will be recorded as failure to attend (DNA).

Missed Appointments

Some patients are not keeping their appointments with the GP or nurse. Surgeries are particularly busy, so be sure to keep to your appointment time and cancel it if you need to; missed appointments waste precious GP or nurse time and resources.

DNA`S

Did Not Attend’(DNA) i.e. when a patient does not turn up for the appointment and does not contact the surgery in advance to cancel/change appointment. The effect of these are:

• An increase in waiting time for the routine appointments.
• An increase of patients not being able to see a GP or nurse.
• Frustration for both staff and patients.
• A waste of valuable resources.

Wasted Appointments

We have noticed recently that we have had quite a few appointments wasted by patients not informing us that they are unable to attend. This does have an effect on our other patients who do need to see a GP but are not able to due to the surgeries being fully booked.

Please remember that if you have booked an appointment and you know you are not going to be able to make it please contact the surgery and cancel that appointment. Hence freeing up this time for someone who may be in great need to see one of our GP's or Nurses.

Due to an increase in the number of wasted appointments due to failing to attend without informing the surgery, it has become necessary to implement the following policy. If you fail to attend 2 consecutive appointments then you will be sent a letter informing you of our concerns and stating that if another appointment is missed you may be removed from the practice list. If a third appointment is missed, you will be sent a similar letter but informing you that you will be removed from the practice and will have to find an alternative doctor.

Repeated failure to attend booked appointments is a significant waste of NHS resources