Missed Appointments

Do you feel frustrated when you cannot get an appointment?

More than 15 million general practice appointments are being wasted each year because patients do not turn up and fail to warn surgeries that they will not be attending.

This can cause serious delays in treatment for other patients. On average, approximately 150 patients Did Not Attend (DNA) their appointment each month. This means the patient did not turn up for the appointment and did not contact the surgery in advance to cancel or change the appointment. This currently results in approximately 40 hours of wasted clinical time each month.

Please call ahead if you think you might be late or no longer want your appointment. Depending on your appointment, you will be sent a text message reminder, which will allow you to cancel, if you are no longer able to attend the appointment

 

Every year wasted appointments cost NHS £162 million. More than 15 million general practice appointments are being wasted each year because patients do not turn up and fail to warn surgeries that they will not be attending.

Around 307 million sessions are scheduled with GPs, nurses, therapists and other practice staff every year and 5% – one in twenty – are missed without enough notice to invite other patients. That works out as around 15.4 million missed slots.

Of these, around 7.2 million are with busy family doctors, which adds up to more than 1.2 million GP hours wasted each year – the equivalent of over 600 GPs working full time for a year.

Each appointment costs an average of £30, putting the total cost to the NHS at more than £216million pounds on top of the disruption for staff and fellow patients that would pay for:

  • The annual salary of 2,325 full-time GPs
  • 224, 640 cataract operations
  • 58,320 hip replacement operations
  • 216,000 drug treatment courses for Alzheimer’s
  • The annual salary of 8, 424 full time community nurses

NHS England is ramping up access to GPs and other health professionals by recruiting thousands of new practice staff and appointments are now available in the evening and at weekdays right across the country.

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Contact Us

Ainsdale Medical Centre
66 Station Rd
Southport
Merseyside
PR8 3HW
Tel: 01704 575133