OVER 12 hours worth of appointments were missed at the Moffat surgery in February.
The GP practice, which is run by the Lochmaben Medical Group, revealed via their social media that a total of 57 appointments were missed by patients throughout the month of February.
The data was further broken down to show the type of appointments that were being wasted: the highest number of missed appointments were with the surgery’s healthcare assistant, totalling four hours and 50 minutes; the number of appointments with the practice nurse equalled four hours and 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, the lowest number of missed appointments were with either advanced nurse practitioner or doctor, equalling three hours and 15 minutes.
Commenting on the missed appointments, a spokesperson for the practice said: “In February, 57 appointments were wasted due to patients not attending (DNAs) without giving a reason or calling. This equates to 12 hours and 20 minutes of wasted appointments.
“If you’re unable to make an appointment, please contact the practice to cancel it, ideally with at least 24 hours notice. This allows us to offer it to someone else who needs it.
“Appointments are a valuable resource, let’s not have any unnecessary waste!
“We have a strict Did Not Attend (DNA) policy – if a patient has three recent DNA appointments without reason given, they will receive a warning letter highlighting this and that it is unacceptable. They won’t be able to book any further appointments until they speak to the practice manager to acknowledge receipt of the letter.”
