When a patient does not attend (DNA) their pre-booked appointment or does not contact the surgery in advance to cancel/change appointment. The affect of these are:
- 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 a patient
If a patient fails to attend a pre-booked appointment they will be sent a letter. Dependent on the reoccurrence of missed appointments the practice will continue to send up to two further reminder/warning letters. However should persistent missed appointments occur, the practice may consider this a breakdown in patient communication and remove them from the registered patient list.