Patients are expected to arrive in good time for their appointments. If patients arrive more than 10 minutes late, they have missed their appointment and will need to rebook a new appointment. This is to prevent delays to the clinician’s sessions and to ensure fairness for patients who have arrived on time.
We appreciate the effort our patients make to attend on time and therefore do our best to run as close to booked appointment times as possible. Adhering to a Late Patient Policy assists us in doing so. However, due to the nature of a GP surgery, sometimes the doctor or nurse may be running behind. When the clinician is running late our reception staff will advise the patients upon arrival and apologise to them for the delay.
If late, patients will have to rebook, as clinicians need the full allocated time to provide safe, high-quality care.
Further information:
If a patient calls ahead to say they will be late, this does not alter the policy. If they are going to be more than 10 minutes late, the receptionist will advise them on the phone that they should rebook, rather than waste a journey.
The admin staff are not permitted to interrupt a clinician during surgery to request them to see late patients, so to avoid disappointment, please do not ask them to do so.
Signed
The Partners
Wootton Vale & Shortstown Surgery