One million GP appointments wasted as West Midland patients fail to show up

There are around 22 million booked slots with GPs, nurses, therapists and other practice staff across the region every year.

It has been revealed that five per cent of those are missed without enough notice to invite other patients – working out at around 1.1 million wasted appointments.

Around 440,000 of these are with family doctors, which equals more than 73,000 GP hours wasted each year – the equivalent of 37 full-time GPs working for a year.

Each appointment costs an average of £30, putting the total cost to the NHS at more than £33 million on top of the disruption for staff and fellow patients.

Figures in your area

In Staffordshire, 110,000 appointments were wasted out of 5.4 million booked slots – costing the NHS £3.3 million.

While in the Black Country, 144,000 appointments were wasted out of 7.2 million that were booked with GPs in the region – costing at least £4.3 million.

And in Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin, there were 130,000 GP appointments missed without prior notice out of 2.6 million – costing £3.9 million.

NHS England is working to improve access to GPs and other health professionals by recruiting thousands of new practice staff and appointments are now available in evenings and weekends in every West Midlands practice.

Dr Francis Campbell, deputy medical director at NHS England West Midlands, said: "We know that timely access to general practice appointments are a priority for the public, which is why we are growing the workforce and offering extended access.

"The NHS long term plan will set out how we build on this progress, but patients can do their part by letting their practice know as soon as possible if they can’t make their slot – freeing up doctors, nurses and other professionals to see others.

"This is particularly important as we go in to winter.”

Patients are also being encouraged to make use of GP online services, where they can book and cancel appointments, order repeat prescriptions, access some of their medical records and more.

Lichfield-based GP, Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, who is chairman of the Royal Colleges of GPs, added: "When patients miss appointments it can be a frustrating waste of resources for GPs and our teams, but also for other patients who are struggling to secure an appointment for themselves.

“There may be many reasons why a patient might miss an appointment, and in some cases it can be an indication that something serious is going on for that individual - but we would urge patients to let us know if they can’t attend as soon as possible, so that we can offer that time to someone else who really needs it.

"To this end, practices are using electronic methods, such as SMS reminders, to encourage patients to keep their appointments, or cancel them in a timely manner.”

Frustrated but not surprised - GPs react

Dr Ian Sykes, based at Oakham Surgery, in Oldbury, said: "It has always been a problem – so these figures really aren't surprising. But now patients are making more appointments, so there are more 'do not attend' scenarios.

"It is really frustrating for us. When a service is free, it is very easy to abuse it which is the frustrating thing for us.

"If they don't turn up for their appointment and give us any notice, we can't do anything with that time. We encourage our patients to cancel if they are not going to attend their appointment – even if it is only by half an hour that is helpful to us. If someone informs us they won't be attending, we can do other work, write prescriptions or call patients. It is 100 per cent wasted time otherwise.

"Patients will still demand to be seen. There are people who want to book appointments to be seen and they can't because of this.

"We are offering more and more appointment slots but demand is much greater which is not helped by wasted appointments."

Lichfield-based GP, Professor Stokes-Lampard, who is also chairman of the Royal College of GPs, added: "When patients miss appointments it can be a frustrating waste of resources for GPs and our teams, but also for other patients who are struggling to secure an appointment for themselves.

“There may be many reasons why a patient might miss an appointment, and in some cases it can be an indication that something serious is going on for that individual - but we would urge patients to let us know if they can’t attend as soon as possible, so that we can offer that time to someone else who really needs it.

"To this end, practices are using electronic methods, such as SMS reminders, to encourage patients to keep their appointments, or cancel them in a timely manner.”