I would love to see a refundable charge for appointments. £5 paid upfront and refunded when the patient turns up, but kept if they don't. Each missed appointment increases your deposit by £1.

It would not only reduce the number of missed appointments massively, it would also make timewasters think twice about whether they actually need to go to the GP.

According to the NHS 1 in 20 appointments are missed, that's 15.4 million costing £216 million. We should put that on the side of a bus or something.

Attend your appointment and you won't pay anything.

Quote: wrencat1873 "Although in most cases, people missing appointments ought to be charged for (if it could be done effectively and efficiently), it would be interesting to know how many appointments are missed now as opposed to 10 or 20 years ago ?? Although no doubt costly, these issues are usually borught up by those not wishing to dfund services properly, rather than geniune concern for the ncost.'" Everyone under the sun has spoken about the cost of missed appointments. That's the oddest argument I think I've ever heard on this subject, given the NHS themselves raise it every year and are investing massively in solutions, not something they would do if in reality it wasn't such a big issue. And they're doing plenty already. My local GP sends several email & text & app reminders ahead of any appointment. A new portal - DrDoctor - is being rolled out as we speak. https://www.england.nhs.uk/2019/01/miss ... -millions/ Anyway, google tells me there were 6.5million missed in 2007-8, versus 15 million currently. There's probably some statistical inconsistency, that seems far to large a variance but frankly I can't be bothered digging. It's a no brainer for me. Prevent missed appointments and put off time-wasters. You know, the clueless, "my little cherub has a cold and I DEMAND ANTIBIOTICS." But no doubt the usual crowd will wail "you're victimising the pooooooorrrr."

Quote: wrencat1873 "Although in most cases, people missing appointments ought to be charged for (if it could be done effectively and efficiently), it would be interesting to know how many appointments are missed now as opposed to 10 or 20 years ago ?? Although no doubt costly, these issues are usually borught up by those not wishing to dfund services properly, rather than geniune concern for the ncost.'" Everyone under the sun has spoken about the cost of missed appointments. That's the oddest argument I think I've ever heard on this subject, given the NHS themselves raise it every year and are investing massively in solutions, not something they would do if in reality it wasn't such a big issue. And they're doing plenty already. My local GP sends several email & text & app reminders ahead of any appointment. A new portal - DrDoctor - is being rolled out as we speak. https://www.england.nhs.uk/2019/01/miss ... -millions/ Anyway, google tells me there were 6.5million missed in 2007-8, versus 15 million currently. There's probably some statistical inconsistency, that seems far to large a variance but frankly I can't be bothered digging. It's a no brainer for me. Prevent missed appointments and put off time-wasters. You know, the clueless, "my little cherub has a cold and I DEMAND ANTIBIOTICS." But no doubt the usual crowd will wail "you're victimising the pooooooorrrr."

I can't believe paying for missed appointments isn't already in place. It would recoup millions.

My wife works for the NHS, and people not turning up for appointments, or turning up late then demanding to be seen straight away is a regular occurrence.

People think that because it's a free service, there are no financial implications when they miss their appointments.

Yes, there will be implementation costs, and it will require a level of administration, but in a 24/7 digital age I would think there's a reasonably successful solution.

I don't disagree with the idea of efficiency and effectiveness measures - although working directly with many Trusts, it's undoubtedly the case that most are well past that and are now into the arena of cutting essential services; and the cause of that is, without question, the failure of Government to fund it properly. There could be an argument about whether that's deliberate or not, but when the Health Secretary is promoting an app that effectively privatises GP's and defunds existing surgeries, it's reasonable to err on the side of the former.

All that said, I do agree that a big drain on the NHS is the general public failing to look after themselves properly - smoking, alcohol and health conditions caused by obesity are costing £billions, and are in most cases entirely avoidable - but given the endless public health campaigns and the massive amount of information that is available to people these days, it does seem that great swathes of us just don't care enough to take appropriate steps.

Maybe the old maxim that familiarity breeds contempt comes into play - we're so used to the NHS picking up the pieces when we break ourselves, that we don't value it any more in the way we ought to? If certain Tories get their way and we do end up with a privatised system, we will quickly realise how good we had it.

Looking at other countries, like the good ol' USofA, where being ill can be quite expensive it doesn't seem to make much of a difference, in fact they are worse than us. I certainly don't have any ready answers, but connecting people with the production of food they eat might be a start,

A large chunk of the population has health insurance - a bit like us so why would their behaviour be any different - sadly?

The figures I have read are that between 33-50 million Americans don't have health insurance - between half to 3/4 of our population. It is estimated 45,000 die as a result each year. They spend twice as much per capita on health than the world average but are ranked 34th in the healthiest countries in the world. Highly processed food & a lack of exercise are killers.

Completely agree - the point I was referring to is your assumption that because health care is very expensive people will take a different view to their lifestyle - its obvious they don't.

I think I was saying the opposite but as they haven't found a cure for memory loss I'm not sure.

A big problem is the NHS unilaterally sending out appointment letters with no thought for whether the patient can make it. Although they have got better in many cases and liaise there are still many ludicrous examples. For example, a few months ago a letter arrived one morning saying my daughter had a hospital appointment at 2.00pm that day when they are aware she resides nearly 200 miles away and has to be collected! I and others I know have recently received short notice appointments via letter and the next day received a second letter changing the day by a couple of days. In fact, often receive two or three letters on the same day! My guess is this is deliberate so they can massage their stats / waiting lists by saying that people cancelled / didn't turn up?