Cancellation Policy
Milton Surgery requests that all patients contact to the surgery to cancel their appointments if they are unable to attend. This should be done at least 2 hours before the appointment is due to start to enable the surgery to offer the appointment to another patient.
If your appointment is between 8am – 10am and you have an illness or emergency that occurs that morning, please phone as close to 8am as possible to advise you will be unable to attend your appointment.
Failure to attend or to cancel in an appropriate amount of time will result in a DNA (Did Not Attend) being noted on your record. Please see the DNA policy below for further information.
DNA Policy
A ‘DNA’ (Did Not Attend) is an occasion on which a patient does not attend a booked appointment with a member of the practice team without contacting the surgery to cancel your appointment at least 2 hours prior to the time of your appointment.
In 2019 Milton Surgery recorded 1,429 DNAs for clinic appointments with GPs and Nurses. This is equivalent of 238 hours, which is 24 working days. The loss of this clinical time has a detrimental effect on the service that we provide to patients and we wish to keep this to a minimum. We feel that it is reasonable to ask patients to let us know in advance if they do not intend or are not able to keep their appointment. Patients who are experiencing ongoing difficulties in keeping their appointments should discuss this with the surgery.
The surgery reserves the right to remove patients from the practice list if they DNA three appointments within a rolling 12 month period.
When a patient does not attend an appointment without giving the correct advance notice, the doctor will code the missed appointment on the patient record. This generates a DNA letter that is sent to the patient.
DNA Letter 1
The purpose of this letter is to remind patients of the importance of attending appointments.
DNA Letter 2
If a patient DNAs two appointments within a twelve month period a second DNA letter is generated, explaining that should there be a further DNA within the twelve month period that the surgery would consider removing the patient from the practice list.
DNA Letter 3
In the event of a third DNA within a rolling twelve-month period, the case will be reviewed by the clinical team and the patient may be removed from the practice list. In this eventuality, the patient and the NHS Lothian will be informed and the patient will need to register with an alternative practice.
If the clinical team determines the patient is not to be removed, a further letter detailing the missed appointment and a reminder of Milton Surgery’s expectations will be sent to the patient.
Exclusions
No patient will be removed from the practice list without due consideration of their individual circumstances and reasons for non-attendance. The purpose of this policy is not to penalise patients with valid medical reasons for non-attendance.
If the practice is aware of special circumstances surrounding a patient’s non-attendance, for example, patients who have been admitted to hospital or have dementia, the medical team reserve the right to exclude the patient from management under this policy.
Patients concerned regarding their management under this policy or who are having problems attending should speak to the surgery. Lack of organisation or forgetting is not an acceptable reason for non-attendance.
