MP Nick Gibb calls for end to '˜serious and increasing' issue of missed GP appointments

On Friday, the Bognor Regis and Littlehampton met with Dr Tim Kimber at the Park Surgery, Littlehampton, to discuss the ‘serious and increasing’ issue of missed appointments.

Mr Gibb said statistics collated by the surgery showed that between April and June, 2018, over 550 appointments were missed by patients – an average of over five per cent of all appointments being missed and more than 150 lost hours.

Nick Gibb said: “It is very wasteful and costly to the NHS when patients fail to turn up to a doctor’s appointment – a simple phone call is all that is needed if events make it difficult or impossible to attend.

“Most people would regard it as a courtesy to their doctor to let the practice know if they can no longer make the appointment.

“The Park Surgery has already tried a range of measures to help reduce the number of no-shows, including reminder text messages.

“The Government recently announced a huge increase in spending on the NHS, increasing its annual funding by £20billion a year by 2023. But every penny of that money needs to be spent on patient care rather than on wasted missed appointments.”