IN MY VIEW... Charging patients who miss appointments is wrong

WORKING out how to control the runaway train of NHS spending is far from easy — and missed GP appointments have become an emotive flashpoint in the discussion about where money is being wasted. Every year, patients fail to turn up to 15 million scheduled GP appointments — each of these equating to around £30 down the drain, in an NHS that is already desperately short of funds. As much as it might put some people’s hackles up, a rarely discussed aspect of missed appointments is a doctor’s reaction to them: the current workload of most GPs is so crushing that when a patient fails to attend an appointment, it can actually be a relief. The next patient can be seen sooner, a telephone call can be made, emails read, or a moment of research into a previous patient’s problem conducted. It has been suggested that patients who miss appointments should be charged a fee — but this, I think, is wrong, not least as it may hit the most vulnerable. There are multiple reasons why some patients fail to turn up to appointments, many understandable, particularly when so many people have to book maybe two or even three weeks in advance just to secure a meeting with a GP. It would be better to invest in public education, and to encourage people to take responsibility to minimise defaults and wastage in the NHS, while accepting that many vulnerable patients should not be discouraged from seeing their GPs. Already, many — especially the elderly — are likely to stand back, disinclined to burden the service with their problems. We must not allow confused messages to the public to put another nail in the coffin of primary care.