Missed doctor appointments

NHS England has released new figures on “did not attend” doctor appointments. It reports that 15 million general practice appointments are being wasted each year because patients don’t turn up and fail to warn surgeries that they won’t be attending.

Waiting times are already long and practices under great pressure, so missing your appointment is a big issue. But in saying so, the NHS has managed to put the backs up of both doctors and patients alike.

Unfortunately, the message backfired with critics arguing that the NHS’S approach could lead to patient blaming. The media coverage that followed included questions about whether patients who miss GP appointments should be fined. Rather radical!

As Royal College of General Practitioners chairwoman Helen Stokes-lampard pointed out, patients miss appointments for a variety of reasons, and behind some “did not attends” could lie serious complications.

The cost of missed appointments is another contentious point. There was criticism of NHS England’s calculations on how much the missed appointments are costing the health service which seemed a touch on the high side.

NHS England estimates the total cost to the NHS is more than £216million a year. This is on the basis that each appointment costs an average of £30. But, as several authorities point out, GP practices are paid on a per-capita basis (per patient) and not per appointment. As such, some believe that the NHS figures are a gross exaggeration and therefore not very useful or constructive.

However, NHS England has increased public awareness of the wastefulness of missed appointments. Hopefully, this will lead some people to take their appointments more seriously.

Some will no doubt respond positively to the debate.