DNA Policy

"More than 15 million general practice appointments are being wasted each year because patients do not turn up and fail to warn surgeries that they will not be attending. Each appointment costs an average of £30, putting the total cost to the NHS at more than £216million pounds on top of the disruption for staff and fellow patients." (NHS England)

There were a total of 852 missed appointment slots between 14.6.2021 and 14.6.2022

There were a total of 1483 missed appointment slots between 1.1.2019 and 1.1.2020.

A DNA (Did not attend) of an appointment occurs when an appointment has not been attended and the patient has not contacted the surgery in advance to cancel it, or has cancelled it so late that the appointment cannot be allocated to another patient.

The practice has a responsibility to maintain a high quality of service for patients and as such, have implemented a policy of removing patients from the practice list who continually default appointments.

If a patient fails to attend 3 appointments (without prior notice of cancellation) within the space of 12 months, they can be removed from the practice list.

This policy is to avoid valuable appointment time being wasted, which prevents those patients in need of urgent medical attention from receiving treatment.

If you need to cancel your appointment:

• Telephone us on 0151 944 1066
• Online via Patient Access https://www.patientaccess.com/
• Visit the surgery to cancel your appointment at reception