Abbey Street,
Stone,
Staffordshire, ST15 8YE

Wasted Patient Appointments

This is an appeal to all our patients to remind them that wasted appointments have a huge impact on us all.

Did Not Attend (DNA) rates for the last 4 weeks by category

Role, No of Appointments not attended in last 28 days (data as of 1 October 2024):

  • Nurses 40
  • GP 26
  • Phlebotomy 29
  • Pharmacist  0
  • Physiotherapist 3
  • Urgent Care Practitioner 3
  • Advanced Nurse Practitioner 18

During the last 28 days we had 119 wasted appointments when patients did not turn up, this is an increase from the 118 last month.  Of these 8 were follow up appointments that were arranged directly with the clinician. 

This means 119 patients had to wait longer for their appointments. 

If you are offered an appointment by text message you need to respond promptly

If the appointment is suitable, then click on the link and reply accepting the appointment.

If you reply and decline the appointment an alternative will be offered, so try to let us know what days and time ranges would be suitable for you. We cannot give you an appointment earlier than the first date offered.

If you do not respond to the offer, your appointment will be offered to someone else and you will have to resubmit your triage to be reviewed again.

If the appointment is no longer needed, you start to feel better or you circumstances change then please let us know.  The average waiting time on the telephone during September was 29 seconds.

You can cancel an appointment in any of the following ways:

  • Using your online patient access account (If you do not have this please ask at the surgery or apply online)
  • Using the NHS App (you would have registered for this for the Covid vaccination pass)
  • You will receive a reminder text message a week before and you can click on the link and cancel the appointment that way
  • You will receive a reminder text message 24hours before and you can click on the link and cancel the appointment that way
  • You can call the surgery 24hrs a day selecting option 6 and leave a message with your name date and time of appointment to be cancelled.

With the demand for appointments so high we can usually fill an appointment up to 2 hours before the appointment time.

We are appealing to you to help us use the valuable resource of appointments more effectively

  • Confirm with us you accept an appointment if you are offered one
  • Cancel any appointment you have made which you no longer need or want.