Missed appointments waste huge amounts of time and effort. Nationally, missed appointments cost the NHS over half a billion pounds a year, which is enough to run two hospitals. The total number of missed appointments in this surgery alone is equivalent to the loss of two weeks of GP and Nurse appointments every year!
Please bear in mind that next time you ring and can’t get an appointment – it may be because someone didn’t come to their appointment and forgot to cancel. If you could please try and let us know that you cannot make appointments, we can ensure someone else gets that appointment.
Patients who repeatedly fail to attend their appointments will be sent a communication.
Between 1st – 31st October – the total number of GP appointments not attended: 52 appointments, the total number of Nurse appointments not attended: 56 appointments and the total number of blood test appointments not attended: 47 appointments.
With all of our clinicians at Woodcock Road the total was much higher for patients not attending, these include appointments for social prescribers, asthma nurse specialists, mental health support workers, clinical pharmacists and nurse practitioners. In total the loss of appointments due to not attenders: 212 appointments in one month. If every appointment is 10 minutes long that equates to 35 hours a month lost to patients not cancelling their appointments.
Please help us this winter by cancelling your appointments.