NHS rule about being late?

That’s definitely what’s lacking in the NHS.
RESPECT

I find that some receptionists can be rude, very unhelpful and on some kind of power trip especially those working at GP practices. Maybe it’s just the way they’re trained in the NHS. Ask if the ‘one minute late rule’ is printed in one of their policies. I doubt it is. Your son was allocated an appointment of X amount of minutes so if he was only 5 minutes late I’m sure there was still enough time left for him to be seen.

I work in radiotherapy and you can't turn patients away if they are late for a fraction of radiotherapy as there are radiobiological conseeinces. The patients are often elderly and have made long journeys. Radiogrpahers stay behind to treat these patients and I sometimes wonder if the rest of the NH S should treat patients with such respect?

If it looks like you will complain of argue the trust has acted to the detriment of a patient you sometimes find slots will magically open.......

We usually say 20 minutes, 1 is absurd!

I work in a physio department. Our appointments are 30 mins; we allow a 10 min grace period. Any longer than that and we have to rebook or our entire diary will then run late for the rest of the day, because 20 mins for a new patient just isn’t long enough to do an effective assessment and offer advice.

generally we run on time, unless someone comes in and we find something concerning like new neurological symptoms or an unaddressed trauma or a domestic abuse disclosure. Those things all have to be dealt with on the spot and will often mean your other patients end up waiting and your clinic runs late. I often try to slot late patients in if I have any space at all, but sometimes it’s not possible.

it seems very harsh to not allow him 5 mins, but if the physio had already been held up several times that day for different things it might be that they just couldn’t allow any more grace. Not necessarily fair!

That’s silly. I was 25 minutes late once as I went to the wrong hospital 🤦‍♀️ Anyway, they’d just called the next person through and I went in afterwards.

Very upsetting for your son too, the NHS is supposed to support. Some of those who work for the NHS are beginning to undermine the existence of the service by being obstructive.

Could you afford a private physio appointment to tide him over?

There is no absolute rule though- it’s at the discretion of the practitioner

Yet they're always 30 mins late anyway… Deeply unfair.

That’s unusual. We also tend to give some leeway ( 15- 20 mins) but it depends on how busy the clinic is etc. not all slots last the same time so there is more flexibility

physio slots are clear 30 min blocks so I can see why they might cancel. Cancelling a 17 year old for being 5 mins late is tough but it is a lesson for him to leave extra time for appointments when you don’t know where you are going.

That seems very unfair and I wonder if he was treated differently because he is a teenager. Last time I had a routine appointment I turned up about 5 -10 minutes late and they slotted me in. Unlike my (non-NHS) dentist who refuses to see you if you are late. Which really annoys me because I'm paying for his time.

That seems very illogical of them. I would question it on his behalf (as he's under 18 you can do that, you're not asking for medical info) and lodge a complaint against the policy.

Has he got a new appointment date?

It seems counter productive for them to be so strict, they now need to reschedule a further appointment.

I wouldn't even categorise 1 min as being late. Sometimes you just can't reason with stupid. But I'd send in feedback - I don't believe it's a policy but even if it is - it's stupid!

I don’t understand the logic of that, usually you get a 30 min appointment so surely they could have seen him and he would have 5 min less? I’d ring and complain.

that seems very unfair

We used to give 20 minutes grace and would slot the patient in between others.