DNA's (Did Not Attends) Policy
More than 300,000 GP appointments are wasted every week across England by patients failing to attend.
More than eight appointments a week on average for every full-time GP are marked as ‘did not attends’ (DNAs), in England.
This is more than 14 million appointments are missed annually, at a cost of around £300m to the NHS.
Each appointment missed prevents us seeing another patient. It is reported that last year 30 million patients a year are unable to get a GP appointment when seeking treatment because of the slump in GP funding and rising demand.
Please help us to help you by always cancelling an appointment you are unable to attend or no longer need, we are then able to offer this appointment to another person in need.
It is our practice policy to monitor all cases of patients not attending appointments (Did not Attend—DNA ) and we have been exploring various options to reduce the number of DNAs with our Patient Group.
Our simplified policy is as follows:
- Patients who repeatedly fail to attend appointments (twice in a sixth month period) and do not contact the surgery in advance will be sent a letter reminding them to cancel appointments they no longer require in advance.
- A further DNA instance in the following 6 months would result in a final letter and explain the possibility of us removing patients who continue to DNA from our practice list.
- Any further DNA's would result in the practice reviewing the circumstances behind patient non-attendance and a possible letter could be sent informing the patient that they have been removed from our list.
- We will also monitor your attendance of appointments at clinics and hospitals for treatment we have referred you to receive.
- Please call your surgery if you wish to cancel an unwanted appointment.
- Please also contact us if you feel you have any health matters/concerns that may result in you missing future appointments.