PATIENTS at Okehampton Medical Centre are being urged to make sure they inform the surgery if they need to miss an appointment so that precious appointment slots are not wasted.

In the year from April 2015 to March 2016, 4,859 appointments were missed without notification — an average of 13.3 per day or 404 appointments per month. The missed appointments have cost the practice more than £40,000. Approximately 2,250 doctors’ appointments have been lost, as have approximately 2,600 nurses’ appointments.

The practice’s patient participation group (PPG) has set up a focus group to look at ways of reducing the number of appointments missed by patients.

Practice manager Kiran Bakhshi said: ‘It is very important that people let us know in advance if they cannot attend an appointment.

‘If patients give us sufficient notice that they cannot make their appointment, then this allows another patient to use that appointment, which helps to reduce the waiting time for patients to get an appointment at the surgery.

‘The PPG has set up a focus group, with whom I am working closely, to look at ways of reducing the number of appointments missed by patients.

‘The main ways in which we intend to do this is by promoting online access for patients through the patient access service, setting up a cancellation voicemail — option 3 on the main surgery number — and launching an SMS appointment reminder service, which also enables patients to cancel their appointment by text message.

‘The practice will be drilling down further into trends in missed appointments and may contact patients who regularly miss appointments to find out why and to help them make better use of the appointment system.’

If you intend to miss an appointment, you can call the practice on 01837 52233 at any point and leave a message on the 24/7 answerphone if an operator is not available.

If patients are registered for online patient access, as well as being able to order repeat prescriptions, view part of their medical record and communicate securely with the practice, they can also book appointments with their own GP and cancel any appointment that they have booked, with any member of the GP or nursing team. Patients can find out more about registering for patient access by visiting the website www.okehamptonmedicalcentre.co.uk or by asking at reception.

Patients must complete a form and provide ID to complete their registration. Patients decide which services they have access to and if they wish to change this they need to contact the practice to let them know.

From the end of June the centre will begin sending out SMS text message appointment reminders to patients, as sometimes people do genuinely forget that they have an appointment booked.

Patients will be able to cancel by replying CANCEL to the message, which will automatically cancel their appointment on the practice’s clinical system. In order to make effective use of this service, the centre will need up to date mobile numbers from patients and will be texting everyone to make sure that they have their consent to send them reminders on the number they currently hold for them.