3 Reasons not to miss your appointment

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  1. Help other patients. – If you book an appointment but don’t attend, another patient will miss out! We all know that due to drastic underfunding, it is hard to get an appointment at the time you want. Another patient could have had your appointment if you no longer needed it.
  2. Reduce our workload. – Failure to attend or cancel an appointment increases administrative work. We need to check the reasons the appointment was made in the first place to see if it needs rebooking as we have a duty of care to our patients. If we’ve asked you to book an appointment it’s likely because you need a review. Certain medication needs monitoring in order for us to safely continue prescribing to you.
  3. Save the NHS money. – According to Government data, a GP appointment costs up to £90. Missed appointments waste money that you have invested in the NHS.

How can you help?

Here are 3 simple ways you can help us to reduce the number of wasted appointments:

  • Encourage family members and friends to attend or cancel their appointment in good time to allow us to offer it to someone else.
  • Write down your appointment and/or add to your phone calendar. Even better, set a reminder.
  • Always cancel unwanted appointments, no matter how late in the day, and if you have been asked by the practice to attend, please rebook the appointment.

Non-urgent advice:

We do have a Practice Policy regarding repeat missed appointments, and patients who continue to miss appointments without a valid explanation will be warned that they made need to register elsewhere if they cannot keep their appointments.

Thank you for your co-operation, support and help.