More than 23,000 GP appointments missed in region in October

NHS England have released the latest figures for GP appointments made across the country, including the number of appointments made when the patient did not attend.

In Suffolk and northeast Essex, a total of 610,586 appointments were made. Of these, 23,491 were not kept, around 3.84 percent.

In Norfolk and Waveney, 719,021 appointments were made, of which 27,929 were not attended. This works out at around 3.38 percent.

For mid and south Essex, the figure was slightly lower at 3.6 percent. Some 647,702 appointments were made, while 23,473 were not kept.

Dr John Havard is a GP at Saxmundham Health practice. He said that it is “really important” for patients to contact their GP to cancel appointments, if for any reason they are not able to attend.

Dr John Havard (left) is a GP at Saxmundham Health practice. Pictured at a Royal College of General Practitioners awards event in Newmarket. Image: Newsquest (Image: Newsquest)

“The demand for appointments has gone through the roof, and at Saxmundham Health we need four Care Navigators to answer the daily deluge of phone calls whereas we used to just have one,” he explained.

“This problem is not the GPs’ fault, and the public reaction helps explain why doctors do not want to be GPs anymore.

“As both public expectation and longer waiting lists increase the load on fewer GPs, it is only a matter of time before we have a system collapse."

A spokesman for the NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board, said:  “We would encourage anyone unable to attend a GP appointment to make every effort to cancel it in good time.

“Not cancelling contributes to longer waiting times for a GP appointment for some other patients.

“We know that there can be legitimate reasons for not cancelling, but doing your very best to do so will reduce delays for others and cut down on the waste of precious NHS resources.”