Time-wasting patients are placing more strain on the NHS by not turning up to their GP appointments, damning research suggests.
Frustrated doctors have revealed that around one in 20 of their consultations are ‘wasted’ by patients who fail to attend.
Around 17 million appointments, which each last for around 10 minutes, are lost on a yearly basis because patients don’t turn up, a survey suggests.
Leading medics have branded the figures as ‘disappointing’, as general practice is already considered to be ‘at breaking point’.
Desperate patients now routinely have to wait three weeks to see their doctor, while surgeries are struggling to recruit as GPs leave in droves.
Frustrated doctors have revealed that around one in 20 of their consultations are ‘wasted’ by patients who fail to attend
The new poll, undertaken by GPonline – a website aimed at doctors, was based on answers from 217 GP partners.
It calculated that the average practice loses 5.1 per cent of appointments each year to patients who don’t turn up.
However, it believes the figure could be much higher as one in seven GP partners said they lose significantly more than that.
Figures estimate that 340 million appointments are conducted each year.
Wasted appointments
Dr Richard Vautrey, head of the British Medical Association’s GP Committee, told GPonline: ‘Every appointment wasted in this way is one less available for a patient who really needs to see a GP.
‘It’s important for patients to work with their practice to deal with this problem and ensure that wherever possible patients inform the practice at the earliest opportunity should they no longer need the appointment they booked.
‘When practices are working as hard as possible to enable patient access, despite the severe limitations resulting from under-funding and workforce pressures, it’s disappointing that so many patients are not attending booked appointments.’
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: ‘General practice is under intense strain. We are making more consultations every day than ever before – yet our patients are waiting longer and longer for appointments.
‘When patients don’t turn up for appointments, it can be frustrating– for both GPs and for other patients who could have had the appointment otherwise.’
Pay for your appointments
Angry doctors have before demanded that NHS patients should pay for their routine appointments, stating it to be the only way to end the crisis.
Some respondents in the survey suggested a similar practice should be adopted for those patients who repeatedly miss their appointments.
A controversial scheme that sees receptionists screening patients to cut the number of GP appointments has been introduced in recent months to free up doctors’ time.
Are doctors to blame?
But some believe doctors are to blame. MPs in April warned millions of patients are being denied appointments because surgeries have two-hour lunch breaks.
In a damning report, they said that half of England’s 7,600 surgeries shut down at some point during the core hours of 8am and 6.30pm.
The MPs cautioned this leads to ‘worse outcomes’ for patients and overcrowding in already stretched A&E units.
Waiting times to see a GP could sky-rocket and hit three weeks by 2022, research by Pulse magazine in June suggested.
Patients currently have to wait an average of 13 days for a routine appointment, according to a survey of GPs – up from ten days in 2015.
Dwindling GP numbers
And GP numbers are known to be dwindling in recent years, placing even more pressure on an over-stretched health service.
This continued crisis has left many patients at risk, with staff unable to cope with the rising demand and slashed funding.
The shortage of doctors comes despite the NHS adopting a £2.4 billion plan in April to recruit 5,000 extra GPs by 2021.
Thousands of new ‘doctors on the cheap’, called physician associates, are also being drafted in and trained to prop up the health service.
An army of them will work in surgeries and hospitals by 2020 to diagnose patients, recommend treatments and perform minor procedures.