Communication key to cutting missed appointments

A new survey of GP surgeries by health education charity Developing Patient Partnerships and the Institute of Healthcare Management indicates 10 million GP appointments a year being missed as well as around 5 million practice nurse appointments.

DPP estimates the cost of missed GP appointments at £180 million per years, based on each appointment being worth a minimum of £18.

It argues that a patient communications campaign is needed to ensure patients know the impact of failing to keep appointments and argues for more effective use of appointment reminders, such as email and text messages.

Many surgeries said that the main reason patients miss appointments is because they forget, or the patient feels better and chooses not to attend without canceling their appointment.

Almost three-quarters of the 683 GP surgeries surveyed say they would consider removing from their lists patients who repeatedly miss their appointments.

In addition some two-thirds of surgeries said they would also support charging patients for missed appointments, which they said led to increased patient waiting times in the surgery, waste NHS money and resources and impact on primary care targets.

The charity says that the practices polled said that the way to reduce missed appointments is by better communication and public awareness campaigns about the impact of missing appointments.

Dr Terry John, DPP spokesman said: “These results are disappointing especially if we consider that each GP appointment costs £18. On the bright side, most practices (65%) believe that this figure can be reduced through effective communication about the impact of missed appointments.”

Commenting on the campaign findings, Jayne Tabor, Institute of Healthcare Management said: "Missed appointments impact on all of us. Almost everyone is likely to have difficulties booking an appointment to see their GP at some point. These difficulties are exacerbated by missed appointments."