A missed appointment is doubly expensive where there's a waiting list: the slot sits empty while somebody else has been waiting months for it. A reminder the day before, paired with a list that refills the gap automatically, is what claws those hours back.
Follow-up recalls fill a clinic, and they're the first thing to slip. Anyone due back in six months should be contacted as a matter of routine rather than whenever reception happens to have a quiet ten minutes.
Separating appointment types eases the morning more reliably than an extra pair of hands. A routine check, a vision test and a pre-operative consultation don't take the same time; once that's in the diary, the clinic stops backing up at ten.