The Mote Medical Practice
DID NOT ATTEND (DNA) POLICY
INTRODUCTION
As a practice we have approximately 700-800 unattended appointments per month. We deal with
non-attendance and lateness proactively so that our services are not strained. We normally send
two notifications for missed or late appointments before further action is considered.
Wasted appointments may mean another patient who wants to see their GP or Practice Nurse is
unable to due to limited availability. We respectfully request that if something arises meaning you
may miss or be late for an appointment in the future, you kindly let us know at least an hour in
advance. Your appointment can then be given to someone else and a new one can be offered to
you if needed.
PRACTICE DNA POLICY
A DNA occurs when an appointment is not attended and the patient has not contacted the practice
in advance to cancel it or where the cancellation is so late as to make it impossible to allocate that
time to another patient who needs treatment.
The practice will code this DNA and this will prompt a retrospective check on the number of DNAs
recorded against that person.
DNA 1
A monthly search will be performed to identify patients who have three or more DNAs in the
previous six months (not extending prior to the notice period commencing 1st January 2016); letter
one will be sent, see below:
Dear Patient,
According to our records, you have recently booked and then did not attend for three or more
appointments with your GP/Practice Nurse/Healthcare Assistant.
We understand that on occasions there may be genuine reasons why you are unable to attend an
appointment. Please contact us to let us know if there were reasonable grounds for your nonattendance on these occasions.
As a practice we have approximately 700-800 unattended appointments per month. We deal with
non-attendance and lateness proactively so that our services are not strained. We normally send
two notifications for missed or late appointments before further action is considered.
Wasted appointments may mean another patient who wants to see their GP or Practice Nurse is
unable to due to limited availability. We respectfully request that if something arises meaning you
may miss or be late for an appointment in the future, you kindly let us know at least an hour in
advance. Your appointment can then be given to someone else and a new one can be offered to
you if needed.
If you have any queries regarding this matter please do not hesitate to contact the surgery. Again,
if you feel this communication has been issued to you in error and there was a specific reason
why you were unable to attend then please inform us. Thank you for your co-operation.
Issue 1 – December 2015, Emma Couch, Practice Manager
D:\401243897.doc
The Mote Medical Practice
DNA 2
Again a monthly search is carried out to identify patients who have received letter 1 and DNAd
again and letter 2 will be sent.
Dear Patient,
You may recall we contacted you previously informing you of appointments you had missed.
According to our records it appears you have missed another appointment.
We understand that on occasions there may be genuine reasons why you are unable to attend an
appointment. Please contact us to let us know if there were reasonable grounds for your nonattendance on this occasion. This is the second time we had to contact you within the last 12
months regarding missed appointments. We feel there may be a breakdown in patient-practice
relationship if a further appointment is missed. Please take this as your second notification, if
you fail to attend for a further appointment we will be considering removing you from our
practice list and you will need to find another practice to register with.
Removing a patient from our registered list is always a last resort, but we have to take the matter
of wasted appointments seriously as it is a strain on our resources and affects the level of service
we are able to give to other patients.
May we take this opportunity to respectfully request again that if something arises meaning you
may miss or be late for an appointment in the future, please kindly let us know at least an hour in
advance, so your appointment can be given to someone else and a new one can be offered to
you if needed.
If you have any queries regarding this matter please do not hesitate to contact the surgery. Again,
if you feel this communication has been issued to you in error and there was a specific reason
why you were unable to attend or were late then please inform us. Thank you for your cooperation.
DNA 3
Again a monthly search is carried out to identify patients who have DNAd in the previous months.
Where a further, beyond letter 2, DNA has occurred, the practice will review the individual case at
a practice meeting and a decision will be taken with regard to addressing the patient’s future ability
to pre-book routine appointments. The practice will consider whether consistent failure to adhere
to our practice policy constitutes a breakdown between the Patient and the GP (where the GP
practice has given clear instruction on policy and service provision and the patient has chosen to
disregard this on several occasions in spite of due warning). If the decision is agreed to remove
the patient a formal removal letter will be sent to the patient and the Kent Primary Care Agency to
arrange removal. The patient will be given 30 days’ notice to find another practice.
If you have any concerns in respect of this Policy please ask to speak to the Practice Manager.
Issue 1 – December 2015, Emma Couch, Practice Manager
D:\401243897.doc