ALMOST three-quarters of GPs are so fed up with patients missing appointments they would consider striking off persistent offenders, a survey has revealed.
A massive 10 million GP appointments, each one costing around £18, are missed every year as well as around 5 million practice nurse appointments.
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The majority of surgeries (71 per cent) say they would consider removing offending patients from their lists and 66 per cent would also support charging patients for missed appointments, according to the survey by Developing Patient Partnerships (DPP) and the Institute of Healthcare Management.
Dr David Crichton, of the James Fisher medical centre in Muscliff, admitted missed appointments were infuriating but said he had mixed feelings about charging patients.
"Some people are disorganised and can't manage appointments and that's part of their problem. We don't want to stop services for those people.
"Having said that, there are other people who are perfectly capable of organising their lives and just have no respect for the system.
"I think it's part of the general breakdown of society. People just don't seem to care about anything other than themselves."
Dr Paul French, a local Bournemouth GP, said: "The number of people who do not attend their appointments in our surgery can be a problem.
"There are various reasons why people do not turn up.
"Sometimes non-attendance can be part of the presenting problem - such as some mental illnesses - and it makes it very difficult for patients to attend."
He added: "When patients repeatedly do not turn up, we have a system in our practice where we speak to the patient to find out why they did not attend.
"If there is no valid reason for the lapse then we may issue a verbal warning, and eventually a written warning about their unreasonable behaviour.
"In extreme circumstances we may consider removing them from our practice list.
"However, I would not be in favour of charging patients as this would be over-bureaucratic and impractical. "
Jayne Tabor, of the 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."
First published: August 25
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