Concern of the Week – Unattended Surgery Appointments

Tattenhall is a particularly well served village with a multiplicity of shops, businesses, restaurants, dispensing chemist, regular bus service, a Post Office about to be returned to its natural home and a thriving GP's surgery. The surgery at Tattenhall is now part of the 'Village Surgeries Group' which includes Tattenhall and Farndon.

That said, many of you are alarmed at the published figures for unattended appointments at 'The Surgery' whether this be with a Doctor or with a Practice Nurse.

The published figure for the 'Village Surgeries Group' (Tattenhall and Farndon) for July 2016 was 114 missed appointments. This is not then subdivided into the missed appointments for each location, rather the same figure appears on the sites for both Tattenhall and Farndon.

The monthly 'Appointment Report' which appears on the Village Surgeries' Website, states ...:
114 missed appointments translates into:
*4 Doctor Surgeries = 41 bookable appointments lost by our doctors
*4 Nurse Surgeries = 73 nurse appointments lost by our practice nurses

This figure causes alarm and frustration to those individuals who are informed that there are no available appointments for several days albeit that they feel an urgent need to see a practitioner. Failing to attend booked appointments can cause serious delays in the treatment of other patients. It also wastes Doctors' and Nurses' time too, which costs taxpayers money.

If you cannot attend an appointment or, in fact, no longer require your booked appointment, then please ring 'The Surgery' to cancel your booking and so make the slot available for other patients.

It also raises the question as to whether 'The Surgery' might send reminders regarding upcoming appointments to its patients in the form of a pop up/text, not unlike this member of the Webteam's dentist etc.