"Good practice"

Everything went well overall. Only a minor thing, when I arrived for my appointment, I followed the instructions of the sign at the entrance, which said "Please sit and wait to be called". I waited for a while and when I realised the time of my appointment had passed and I wasn't called, I went to the reception and I was told that I should have checked in first. I think it might be helpful to have a sign that invites people to check in, because there was no way people could known otherwise. Not having checked in resulted in me waiting for more than 1h until the clinician was kindly available to see me outside the time of my appointment. I really appreciated this, however I do think that none of this would have occurred if I was made aware of having to do the check in in the first place. It can't be assumed that patients who do not attend the practice regularly know that they have to check in on arrival, especially when the first thing you see at the entrance is a sign that invites you to simply sit and wait, without mentioning any check in. It would be helpful to include an invitation to check in on that sign for those who don't know.

I also have to say that every staff member I spoke to about this was very understanding and tried to problem solve the situation, which I very much appreciated.