Did Not Answer

Introduction 

“Did Not Answer Policy” (DNA) is where the patient does not answer their telephone when they have booked an appointment with GP or other clinician. 

What to expect from our GP or clinician when booking a telephone / email appointment 

When you book a telephone / email appointment with a GP or clinician, your name is added to their patient list for the day. You are asked to record your up to date telephone number and the reason for the call. 

Clinicians often have 30 or more appointments in one day and they will do their very best to contact you as near to the scheduled time as they can, but there may be delays in the event of a medical emergency. 

On most days we contact patients back the same day, rarely calls must be delayed until the next working day. Sometimes clinicians choose to message patients instead of calling them when an answer appears straightforward. 

You can imagine it is extremely frustrating for both patients and staff when patients do not answer their arranged calls. 

It is important that you keep your phone with you and on at all times to ensure you don’t miss your appointment. 

Calls start from the surgery from 8am and may continue until 7pm. 

The GP or clinician may call you with a No Caller ID or from a non-surgery phone. 

What happens if I miss my call?

We understand that calls may be missed from time to time. 

If you miss your call the clinician will attempt to call you once more, if you miss a second call then we will ask you to rebook your appointment via our online consultation system – ANIMA. 

The date and time of your failure to respond to a call will be recorded in your clinical record. 

In summary the clinician will call you twice, if you miss both calls it will be your responsibility to rebook another appointment via ANIMA. 

In an emergency, please contact the surgery direct and do not use ANIMA. 

Please do not ask reception for a specific time, the clinicians workload for the day cannot be predicted.