No shows are costing us dearly

There are many acceptable reasons for deciding you don’t need to keep an appointment with you GP.

You might have double booked, you may have been given a better offer or, quite simply, you may be feeling well again.

We have no truck with the reason, what matters is letting your GP know.

As we reveal today, there were a staggering 6,301 no shows for face-to-face consultations with doctors and nurses.

These are missed appointments which cost the NHS more than £189,000 in December alone.

That’s more than 1,000 hours of valuable time wasted.

David Gallagher, chief officer of NHS Sunderland Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said: “There are many genuine reasons why people may need to cancel or reschedule an appointment, but it is important that people let their GP practice know if they are unable to attend.

“GP appointments are in great demand, and by simply not turning up you are making it harder for other patients to be seen.

“Missed appointments also cost the NHS a lot of money. We all have a responsibility to make the best use of NHS resources and this includes appointments at the GP practice.

“If you have an appointment coming up that you no longer need or are unable to attend, please let your practice know as soon as possible.”

Good manners as we all know, cost nothing.

But failure to apply good manners and inform your GP of a cancelled appointment costs the equivalent of eight full-time nurses.

Do the right thing by our NHS and let your GP know if you can’t make an appointment.

It really couldn’t be simpler.