Staggering cost of missed appointments

The NHS is frequently criticised – by the public, by politicians and in the media – but the patients who use the service don’t often come under fire. Well perhaps it’s time they did. A few months ago we revealed how the William Harvey had cancelled more than 50,000 hospital appointments in three years and 20,000-plus patients had been subjected to multiple cancellations.

But now a William Harvey patient has told us that posters in the hospital reveal a worrying number of people are wasting the appointments they’ve been given.

Our Freedom of Information request has now revealed that 46,202 patients had failed to show up for appointments at the Harvey in the same three-year period.

Some could have had a genuine emergency that stopped them getting to their appointment, a few may have forgotten. But 46,202? That’s a huge number.

The NHS estimated those people wasted a staggering £5.4m – money that could have been spent on medicine for our children or care for our elderly.

We all lead busy lives and it’s easy to forget appointments or confuse dates but a cancelled appointment can be given to another patient on the waiting list.

One day that person desperately waiting for an appointment, who’s perhaps already had several cancelled, could be you.