We aim to treat our patients courteously at all times and expect our patients to treat our staff in a similarly respectful way. It is your responsibility to keep your appointments, inform us of your past illnesses, medication, hospital admissions and any other relevant details.

 

Did Not Attend ('DNA') Policy

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We are committed to ensuring that the best possible service is provided to all patients registered with the practice.

‘Did Not Attend’ (DNA) is when the patient does not turn up for a pre-booked GP appointment and does not contact the surgery in advance to cancel/change appointment.

The impact of DNA’s is:

• An increase in the waiting time for appointments

• Frustration for both staff and patients

• A waste of resources

• A potential risk to the health of the patient

Our Objectives

• To free up appointments for those who genuinely need them

• To reduce the waste of clinical time

• To reduce the pressure on all staff in being able to offer prompt appointments

How we will monitor and act on DNA’s

• All DNA incidences are coded onto the patient record.

• 1st DNA - patient will be sent a text, email or letter reminding them how to cancel appointments they cannot attend.

• 2nd DNA - patient will receive a text, email or letter advising that should a further DNA occur in the next 12 months they may be removed from the list. Further we will advise on our DNA policy, how to cancel an appointment, and ask the patient to let us know if they have any specific issues which are causing DNAs.

• 3rd DNA - the patients record will be reviewed and we may make the decision to remove them as a patient. If so, we will send you a letter (which may go by text or email) notifying you of this.

• Frequent DNA’s - if a patient DNA’s 3 times in a 6 week period their record will be reviewed and we may make the decision to remove them as a patient even if the we have not sent notification re DNA 1 and DNA 2.

 

HOW TO AVOID BECOMING A DNA

If you cannot attend or no longer need an appointment, please ring us on

0203 826 8084 or by responding to the appointment reminder text message you will have received.

Keep your contact details up to date

Mistakes do happen and we understand that appointments can be forgotten about or overlooked, or exceptional circumstances can arise; in such cases, we will take into account the reason given by Patients.

What We As A Practice Are To Doing To Reduce DNAs

We will send all patients text reminders of their appointments

We will inform patients when they miss appointments and will make every effort to understand why a DNAs has occurred.

We encourage patients to feedback on our processes and to make suggestions on how we can improve our service for all patients.

We will remove patients as a last resort and only once their record has been reviewed.