No-show patients waste time of one GP for each surgery every week

Doctors surgeries are losing the equivalent of one GP per week because patients do not show up for appointments, an MP has warned.
Around 12 million appointments are missed each year, costing the NHS £160 million annually.
On Thursday in the commons, John Howell, MP for Henley, in Oxfordshire, criticised patients who fail to attend appointments which could be re-allocated to others and called for surgeries to move to tele-care that would allow people to be monitored from home.
"No-shows can affect the surgery by denying appointments of the equivalent of up to one doctor per week,” he said in a backbench debate about the future of doctor’s surgeries.
“There is a basic education point that stands in the way of patients taking responsibility for their own health, which has to be the way forward.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/11393386/No-show-patients-waste-time-of-one-GP-for-each-surgery-every-week.html

I always wanted to know how a missed appointment costs time and money, if some one does not turn up for an appointment the Doctor calls the next one in so his time is not wasted as he gets through his list more quickly.

nicko wrote:I always wanted to know how a missed appointment costs time and money, if some one does not turn up for an appointment the Doctor calls the next one in so his time is not wasted  as he gets through his list more quickly.

Agreed!

Not only that, but it's the same on the other side. A no-show is a no-show, whether it's NHS or the worst, money-grubbing physician.

Oh that's so annoying. People should ring if they can't make an appointment, and then maybe someone else can have it, especially if it's to see a consultant - you have to wait ages to see one of those.