FAILURE TO ATTEND PRE-BOOKED APPOINTMENTS

A survey by GP Weekly in 2015 suggested that over 300,000 patients failed to attend a GP appointment each week. NHS England estimates that more 12 million GP appointments are missed costing £162 million per annum.

The Practice keeps record of the level of failure to attend appointments and have systems in place to monitor whether named patients continually fail to attend appointments.

If a patient fails to attend a pre-booked appointment on more than 2 occasion in the last year, a warning letter will be sent to the patient, advising them that a further occurrence could risk removal from the practice.

Warning letters are valid for a period of 12 months. Removal based on warnings greater than 12 months old will be invalid – in this case a further formal warning and period of grace will be required.

If the patient fails to attend another appointment, the matter will be discussed with the GP and a decision will be reached as to whether the patient will be removed from the practice list.

Following agreement, Practice Secretary will write to the patient and explain the reasons for removal.

Practice post totals of Did Not Attend’s (DNA’s) on waiting room notice boards. Initiative such as sending text reminders was aimed at reducing DNAs.