Missed GP appointments hits 117,000 in Cornwall

Health bosses say lost appointment time could have been used by other patients

GP practices have urged patients to cancel unwanted appointments after 117,000 no-shows in Cornwall this year.

NHS figures showed that about 15,000 people failed to keep their appointments in September.

It amounted to more than 600 days of lost appointment time which could have been used by other patients, said health bosses.

NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly said it wanted to raise awareness of the problem.

Dr Andy Sant, a GP in Liskeard, said: "What we're finding is the rate of people who are failing to attend their appointments is rising year-on-year."

'Wasting clinician's time'

He said the number of no-shows was "starting to impact on our ability to offer appointments".

"As the numbers are growing, we are actually finding we are wasting clinicians' time when it could be offered to other people."

Dr Sant said Cornwall was the number one county in England for access to GP appointments and urged people to cancel appointments they no longer needed.

He said: "15,000 is essentially a day's worth of work across the 55 GP surgeries in Cornwall, so we are hoping at the absolute best we get another extra day per month of extra activity through the practices."

Lorna Boulton, reception manager at Atlantic Medical Group in Penzance, said: "Our staff are seeing more patients than ever before, but the number of appointments not attended is quite alarming.

"We would much rather someone cancels or rearranges their appointment if they need to, so that another patient can be seen instead.

"This could make such a big difference to everyone involved."