Unattended appointments in November Posted or Updated on 10 Dec 2018

In November 2018 108 patients did not attend their appointments.  This was 20 & 1/4  hours of Nurse and Doctor time wasted.  The rate of ‘no shows’ has increased in November compared to the last 4 months.  Please take it seriously that if you have an appointment and cannot attend you do need to tell us.  The demand for appointments is so high yet 108 patients effectively blocked other patients from having appointments.  As a surgery all we can do is highlight this as an issue and trust that our patient population will take note and help us to help all patients have access to our appointments.

In the last 5 months a total of 514 appointments were wasted through no shows.  That's 102 & 1/4 hours of nurse & doctor time.  In that period 58 patients have not shown up TWICE, & 6 have not shown up at least 3 times without letting the surgery know.  This is an incredible waste of valuable NHS resources & the consequences of not attending an appointment (without the courtesy of letting the surgery know) should not be underestimated.

We appreciate that our telephone lines can be very busy, so we would highly recommend accessing your appointments online, as you can cancel any nurse or GP appointment booked with the surgery within moments! All you need to do is visit reception, bring some photographic identification (so we can ensure we are giving access to the correct person) and complete a simple request form, so we can give you access immediately.