Patients still not attending

May 5 2008 by Madeleine Brindley, South Wales Echo

CARDIFF GP Dr Andrew Dearden believe he loses up to six appointments a day because patients do not turn up.

This is despite trying to improve access at Roathwell Surgery, in Newport Road, by introducing a walk-in surgery and releasing more appointments every morning for patients who urgently need to see a GP.

Dr Dearden said: “If someone books an appointment six weeks in advance for a routine review, they may forget.

“Some people make appointments for a runny nose and it clears up on its own but they don’t tell us they aren’t coming.”

In one case a family failed to turn up to two appointments they had made for their children earlier that morning.

“I have a list of 7,400 patients and I suspect that I have at least five or six a day who do not turn up,” he said.

“We are trying to maximise people’s access to doctors through walk-in appointments and ones that can be booked six weeks in advance.”