Why have a DNA policy?
A DNA ‘Did not attend’ means that the patient does not turn up for the appointment and does not contact the surgery with enough time in advance to cancel/change appointment.
A significant number of appointments per week are classified as ‘DNA’ (there were 5.25 hours of DNAs in the last week* and over 1200 DNAs in 2018, the equivalent of over 7 full days of missed clinical appointments).
The effect of DNAs is:
- An increase in the waiting time for appointments
- Frustration for both staff and patients
- A waste of resources
By reducing the number of DNAs you should be able to:
- Improve patient experiences with booking appointments
- Enable more effective booking
- Allow efficient running of clinics
Whilst we understand that the reason for the non-attendance is sometimes unavoidable, it is difficult for the Practice to make a judgement and the end result is always the same; a lost appointment that someone else could have used.
Thank you very much to those patients who do take the time to cancel their pre-booked appointments.
A copy of our Did Not Attend (DNA) Policy is available here