Missed GP appointments costing NHS millions
Missed GP appointments costing NHS millions
Patients urged to cancel appointments rather than just not show up. Between 01/01/24 and 31/12/24 we have 987 appointments that have been arranged but not attended by patients at The Devonshire Lodge Practice. This means approximately £29610 cost to the practice.
In April 2025, we have 91 appointments marked as DNA’d, approximately £2730 costing.
More than 15 million general practice appointments are being wasted each year because patients do not turn up and fail to warn surgeries that they will not be attending.
There are around 307 million sessions scheduled with GPs, nurses, therapists and other practice staff every year and 5% – one in twenty – are missed without enough notice to invite other patients. That works out as around 15.4 million missed slots.
Of these, around 7.2million are with busy family doctors, which adds up to more than 1.2 million GP hours wasted each year – the equivalent of over 600 GPs working full time for a year.
Each appointment costs an average of £30, putting the total cost to the NHS at more than £216million pounds on top of the disruption for staff and fellow patients that would pay for:
- The annual salary of 2,325 full time GPs
- 224, 640 cataract operations
- 58,320 hip replacement operations
- 216,000 drug treatment courses for Alzheimer’s
- The annual salary of 8, 424 full time community nurses
NHS England is ramping up access to GPs and other health professionals by recruiting thousands of new practice staff and appointments are now available in the evening and at weekdays right across the country.
3 Reasons not to miss your appointment
- Help other patients. – If you book an appointment but don’t attend, another patient will miss out!
- Reduce our workload. – Failure to attend or cancel an appointment increases administrative work.
- Save the NHS money. – According to Government data, a GP appointment costs up to £50. Missed appointments waste money that you have invested in the NHS.
Here are 3 simple ways you can help us to reduce the number of wasted appointments:
- Encourage family members and friends to attend or cancel their appointment.
- Write down your appointment and/or add to your phone calendar. Even better, set a reminder.
- Always cancel unwanted appointments, no matter how late in the day.
