Yellow Practice -   Did Not Attend (DNA) Policy

Appointment time for our practice health care professionals is precious.

Waste of appointments by patients not attending without cancelling in sufficient time to offer the appointment to someone else is taken very seriously.  The Practice have therefore taken the decision to remove patients who abuse our systems.

As a practice we would like to reduce the rate of DNAs, by the use of education, a certain amount of pressure, and by considering the removal of those who persistently waste our time.

Objectives

• To free up appointments for those who genuinely need them
• To reduce the waste of clinical time
• To reduce the pressure on all staff in being able to offer prompt appointments

Registration Appointments

Anyone who does not attend a Registration appointment and does not cancel this with sufficient time for it to be offered to another patient will not be accepted.  They will be asked to register with another GP Practice.

Booked Appointments

Any patients who are registered with the Practice and who miss two appointments or fail to cancel with sufficient time for it to be offered to another patient, will be sent a letter warning them of the situation and explaining that if it occurs a third time within the next six months they will be removed from the Practice. 

The Practice will identify patients who do not attend on a weekly basis.

The Practice offers a text reminder service to patients provided we have up-to-date mobile numbers.   This service also has a cancellation facility allowing patients to cancel an appointment up to 60 minutes prior to appointment.

Please refer to the Text Message Reminder page for further information.

REMEMBER IT IS THE PATIENT'S RESPONSIBILITY TO CANCEL ANY BOOKED APPOINTMENT.