Patients de-registered for missing GP appointments in north Essex

Richard Miller, practice manager at Great Bentley Surgery (Image: Archant)

That’s the message from the practice manager of a doctors’ surgery, who said the problem is not isolated to GPs but applies across the health service – and also has a financial cost.

Richard Miller, manager of the Great Bentley Surgery, said the problem is particularly acute at this time of year – and urged patients to attend appointments, or cancel them if they cannot make it.

While his surgery sees on average one or two missed appointments each day or 80-100 monthly – a considerable number when applied to all surgeries in the area – on the Monday before Christmas they had an “exceptional” 10 patients fail to show up.

Over the past year the surgery has also de-registered three patients who regularly failed to attend. Those patients had missed six to 10 appointments and not replied to reminder and warning letters, or offered an explanation.

Mr Miller said: “I don’t think it’s any secret GP surgeries struggle to offer appointment to patients in a timely manner – people are advised to wait a week or two for routine appointments.

“What we do see is so many missed by people. Some are completely genuine, and we accept that, but far too many times we see them not attended and they just go to waste.

“It is not only wasting money but wasting the resource, and we see this situation across the local health service. Ultimately we are all patients and we need people to respect the health service and try to alleviate the pressure we are already under.”

Each missed GP appointment is estimated to cost the NHS around £22.

He said a text reminder service had been in operation at his practice for around 10 years, and was used at many other surgeries locally, which also allowed people to cancel by text if they could not attend.

Removing a patient from a surgery’s list was “a last resort” after missing “successive” appointments, he added.

“When a GP appointment is missed the doctor will try to get on with some work, but they can’t get stuck in because the patient might turn up,” Mr Miller continued.

“People don’t realise the cost because the NHS is free at the point of use – but it isn’t free, it costs tax payers’ money and that’s all of us. This is not money the NHS has to spare.

“GPs are a finite resource, demand is increasing, and we have got to use the ones we in the most efficient way possible.”