20,000 patients miss GP appointments each day

Analysis of NHS data has revealed that more than one million people fail to turn up to appointments at GP surgeries every month, at a cost of more than £200 million a year.

With approximately 307 million appointments scheduled every year, analysis of NHS Digital figures indicate that a record 7.8 million patients in England ‘did not attend’ appointments between June and November last year, meaning there are now an average of 42,822 no-shows a day.

The Sunday Times has reported that of the appointments analysed, around half were to see doctors and the other half were to see nurses or other healthcare professionals. Roughly five per cent of appointments are missed without notice – meaning that 15.4 million appointments are wasted.

Martin Marshall, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: "Missed appointments are very frustrating, especially when GPs could be seeing other patients - but, for some patients, there may be more complex reasons for non-attendance. In many cases, missed appointments will be simple human error, and practices are working hard to ensure that patients are aware of their appointments by sending reminders by text and email or encouraging them to make appointments through the surgery app.

"However, non-attendance can also indicate something more serious, such as underlying mental health issues, and it would be helpful if practices had more time and resource to follow up patients they might have particular concerns about and determine their reasons for not using their appointment.

"At a time when we have a severe shortage of GPs and patients in many areas of the country are having to wait weeks to see their family doctor, we would urge patients who no longer need their appointment to contact the surgery at the earliest possible opportunity so that valuable GP time can be used for the benefit of other patients."