Rothschild House Group Reports Worrying Levels of No-shows

Berkhamsted Living Magazine Rothschild House Surgery

Rothschild House Group practice has reported, after only one week, worryingly high levels of patients not appearing for their face-to-face appointments (‘DNAs’), since all patients were given the option of booking one from 6 September.

Face-to-face appointments have been provided by the practice throughout the pandemic, whenever there was deemed to be a clinical need, but after much media attention and pressure, NHS England advised surgeries to provide face-to-face appointments on demand.

If patients fail to turn up and don’t cancel their appointments this is a huge waste of valuable staff time and is unfair on other patients who could otherwise have taken the appointment. So far there appears to be no clear pattern to this unexpected high level of Did Not Attend (DNAs) and the surgery, as well as their patient groups, are keen to understand what is happening to cause it. If you have any insights you are willing to share, in confidence, with the patient group, please contact them rhsppg@gmail.com.

Practices nationally have faced a huge amount of criticism for the delay in reinstating face-to-face patient appointments, following changes in NHS England advice. It is therefore very disappointing that when these valuable appointments were offered recently, so many didn’t turn up or cancel. If a patient has a mobile phone registered with the practice, they will receive a text reminder of the appointment and instructions on how to cancel without calling the surgery. Obviously, there will be occasions when it isn’t possible to cancel because of short notice changes in circumstances, but for the benefit of other patients and busy practice staff, the practice asks you to cancel as soon as possible if you know you won’t be able to attend a face-to-face appointment (or telephone appointment for that matter). For more details visit www.rothschildhousesurgery.co.uk/appointments.

Rothschild House Group has three patient groups covering their surgeries in Tring/Pitstone, Berkhamsted and Markyate. They are always seeking new members to ensure that they can represent the broadest range of patients, see www.rothschildhousesurgery.co.uk/patient-group. The patient group publishes a regular local health newsletter which covers not just the latest news and advice from the practice, but information from other local health organisations, such as hospitals, to which patients may be referred. There is also a regular section of almost fifty organisations, local, regional, and national which can provide support, advice, and information for a variety of health and welfare needs. View a recent copy of the newsletter and sign up to receive your personal copy.

To feedback your thoughts on this problem, please contact rhsppg@gmail.com.