At The Orchard Partnership, we are deeply committed to providing the best possible care for our community. However, we know that finding the right appointment at the right time can sometimes be challenging for our patients.
Primary care services across the country are facing ever-increasing demands. Here in Wiltshire, we are constantly balancing limited appointment availability around holiday periods, navigating wider healthcare system challenges, and managing seasonal healthcare pressures. Because of this, making every single appointment count matters for us all more than ever.
Why we ask about your symptoms
We want to help as many of our patients as possible. When you contact the surgery, our reception team will usually ask you for a brief overview of your clinical need. Please be assured this is not meant to be intrusive. Our receptionists are trained care navigators, and gathering this information helps them direct you to the most appropriate healthcare professional first time, whether that is a GP, an advanced nurse practitioner, a physiotherapist, or a local pharmacist.
The impact of missed appointments
To help put the current pressures into context, we recently reviewed our appointment data for the first quarter of the year, from January to March 2026. During this three-month period alone, we lost 6,573 minutes of clinical time across our surgeries to appointments where the patient did not attend.
This equates to 377 wasted appointments.
It is a common misconception that a missed appointment simply gives our hardworking clinicians a few minutes of welcome administrative time back. In reality, a missed appointment generates extra work for multiple members of our team. When a patient does not turn up, we have a duty of care to follow up. This means our team must spend time trying to contact the patient to establish why they did not attend, check if there are any immediate health or welfare concerns, and then go through the process of re-booking the appointment for another time.
How you can help us help you
We completely understand that life can be unpredictable and circumstances change. All we ask is that if you know you cannot make your scheduled appointment, please let us know as soon as possible. By cancelling your appointment, even at relatively short notice, you allow us to offer that valuable time to another patient who may be in urgent need of care.
There’s even an automated option when you call us, so there’s no need to queue to cancel an appointment – it’s quick and easy.
Thank you for your ongoing patience, support, and understanding as we work together to keep our local community healthy and well.