Our DNA (Did Not Attend) Policy

We're trying to manage our demand and capacity, and one way we’re aiming to do this is by working with all patients that fail to attend appointments. If you would like support with this, please contact a Patient Services Lead.
 
Please be aware, that if multiple DNAs occur within a six-month period, we may restrict your access in the following ways:

• Only being able to pre-book one appointment at a time
• Revoking access to online booking
• We will ask you to confirm your attendance the day before to all future appointments and failure to do so will result in the appointment being cancelled without prior notice

Morning Surgery

08:00 until 11:00

Afternoon Surgery

15:00 until 17:40

(Times may sometimes vary with earlier appointments being available).

You may find it easier to book with the clinician of your choice the further you book ahead.

This type of appointment is for ongoing problems, medication reviews, sick notes and all other problems that are not urgent, i.e., they do not need to be dealt with in the next 24 hours. 

You are reminded that all appointments are for one problem only.

Eligibility

For problems that:

• Are too urgent to wait until the next available appointment
• Don't meet the Pharmacy First criteria
• Aren't suitable for self-referral or other signposting options

Availability

You may see a Doctor, Registrar, Advanced Nurse Practitioner, Emergency Care Practitioner or a Paramedic.

This will be a ringback from an on-call Clinician for an urgent problem where it is not suitable to:

• Wait for the next available appointment
• Be signposted to another service or clinicians
• Be referred to Pharmacy First
• Sit & Wait

If you wish to speak to a clinician but don't need to see them in person you can ask our Patient Services Advisors to arrange for them to call you, rather than attending the practice. The clinicians usually do their ringbacks during and at the end of the morning surgery.  Therefore, if you would like a ring back please call before 11:00.

These are particularly suitable for: 

• Prescription queries 
• Continuing sickness certificates - e.g., you still feel unwell after seeing a clinician earlier in the week, but don't need to see them again in person 
• Results of investigations - the Patient Services Advisors can give you results if they are normal and no action is required, however, other cases might require an appointment to see the requesting clinician. If you prefer, you can ask for them to ring and discuss your results.

Sometimes, the clinician may decide they would like to see you in person after speaking to you on the phone, in these cases, they will arrange an appointment with you.

Please note that this is unrelated to the BT Ring Back service.

Please ring for home visits between 08:00 and 11:00, if possible, so the GP will be able to see you on their rounds and not have to make a special journey. These visits will be with an allocated GP. All home visit requests after 11:00 will be with the on-call duty GP. 

Our staff are happy to give home care when appropriate. Most ill patients and their carers prefer care to take place in the home rather than in hospital. 

The team is dedicated to providing the best possible standard of care at home but it comes with a lot of disadvantages. Facilities at home can never be as good as the practices and travelling takes up time which could be spent seeing patients in surgery. 

For these reasons the Doctors have asked staff to only arrange home visits when the patient is too ill to come to the Practice. 

Follow this link for more guidelines on our home visits.

We believe we should pass our skills to others, so we proudly have Trainee Doctors regularly at Castle Medical Group.

Registrar Doctors

Registrars are fully qualified doctors who have decided they would like to become GP's. They undertake blocks of training varying between four months and a year of ‘on-the-job’ training with us here and are supervised by the Partners. You may be booked with a Registrar and we will notify you at the time of booking if this is the case.

Medical Students 

We regularly have a medical student here for a 6 week placements, these are young people training to become Doctors. You will be informed if there is a medical student sitting in with a clinician you wish to see and asked if you are prepared to have the medical student in your consultation. Do not be afraid to say no.

Video Consultations 

As part of their training both the Registrars and medical students have to video consultations. You will always be asked if you are happy for this to happen and be given an information leaflet and consent form. At the same time the Patient Services Advisor will explain the procedure to you. A recording will not be undertaken without a patient's consent and intimate or physical examinations will not be recorded. The camera will be switched off on request. Please do not be afraid to say no if you are uncomfortable with this, and it will not affect the care we provide for you in any way.