We have seen a rise in the number of patients not attending booked appointments and in the current climate of dwindling investment in General Practice and increasing patient demand, we cannot allow it to go unchecked. The number of missed appointments since January 2018 has been;

January - 409

February - 336

March - 326

April - 353

May - 401

June - 305

July - 351

August - 312

September - 314

October - 399

November - 396

December - 327

Therefore, any patient missing a booked appointment will now receive an initial letter reminding them to let us know if an appointment is no longer needed. If a further appointment is missed, a 2nd letter will be sent warning that any further instances may result in the cancellation of their registration, meaning they will need to register with another practice. This is not something that we do lightly and we do take other events into consideration, such as a patient being in hospital, but we have to limit the number of missed appointments in order to offer our very best service to the whole of our 11,000 registered patients.

Appointments can be cancelled in person at reception, over the phone, via text message (by following the instructions in the appointment reminder text) or online and must be done at least 1 hour before the start of your appointment.

We thank you for your co-operation and understanding.