Did not Attend GP Appointments in the Dearne

Report - 31 August 2017

Working with the Dearne Approach Healthwatch Barnsley agreed to explore the issues relating to DNA’s with service users and General Practices across the Dearne. We also agreed to raise awareness about the importance of keeping appointments or cancelling appointments where necessary.

The financial cost of missed appointments in the NHS has been estimated, in 2015, at £300m per year, based on 14m appointments being missed per year. By reducing the number of patients not attending appointments at general practices, even by a small amount, would result in a large financial saving. Reducing the rate of patients who did not attend their appointment (DNA) would also ensure that time was available for other patients who needed medical advice. This could then directly impact on the number of patients that present at A&E as they cannot get a GP appointment and are worried about their health, or get admitted to hospital due to their condition becoming serious.

We spoke to patients, GP Receptionist and Practice Managers to find out what the impact of DNA's has on the service they provide. Read our report in full to find out what residents in the Dearne told us.

“People forget to cancel; because an appointment has no visible cost to them they think it doesn’t matter if they do not attend”

Practice Manager, Dearne

Downloads

If you require a copy of this report in a different format please telephone us on 01226 320106 or email healthwatch@barnsleycvs.org.uk

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Did Not Attend Report for the Dearne
Download (PDF 583 KB)

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