PATIENTS who miss doctors’ appointments cost the National Health Service at least £162 million a year, research revealed yesterday.
Almost nine million GP sessions are missed annually, with just under four million practice nurse appointments also wasted, according to the health education charity Developing Patient Partnerships (DPP) and the Institute of Healthcare Management.
Nearly two thirds of practices (64 per cent) are in favour of charging patients as a means of cutting down on missed appointments, the survey showed. Nearly all of the 707 GP practices that took part in the survey (96 per cent) agreed that missed appointments were a waste of NHS resources. Seventy two per cent believed that missed appointments increased waiting times for people who needed to see a doctor. DPP said that while the overall figure was down by around 3.5 million since last year, 60 per cent of practices still found it a problem. Sixty seven per cent thought that patients simply forgot their appointments, while 26 per cent believed patients felt better and did not turn up.