Those who attend the surgery will know that we display how many people failed to attend their appointment in the preceding month, and people are often horrified at the numbers of DNA’s (Did Not Attend).
If you know that you cannot attend an appointment please cancel it as soon as possible. If patients cancel appointments 20 minutes before they are due to be seen we can’t always fill them so they are “lost”.
If you have to cancel an early morning slot please try to avoid cancelling the appointment the night before (after 6pm) or in the morning of the appointment (before 8am). We cannot fill these slots because the surgery is closed. These “lost” appointments are equivalent to not attending in terms of provision of appointments.
This is an especially important for long term condition slots and Nexplanon insertion appointments. 30 minutes of doctor/nurse time are lost for each of these type of appointment and 20 minutes of GP time for a baby check DNA.
- The NHS belongs to all of us – help us to keep it working smoothly by turning up for appointments
- Every time you see a GP it costs the NHS £43, on average, for a 12-minute consultation
- A visit to Accident and Emergency costs £112
- Did you know that an outpatient appointment costs £115?
Please cancel appointments you cannot attend.