The practice monitors the number of patients who have not attended a booked appointment each month. Patients are requested to cancel booked appointments if they are no longer able to attend or feel the appointment is no longer needed. This then allows the appointment to be given to someone else. Patients who repeatedly fail to attend a booked appointment are written to advising them that failure to repeatedly attend booked appointments can result from removal from the practice list as this not an effective use of practice resources.