Thousands miss East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire GP appointments

There were more than 38,000 missed GP appointments across East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire in November

An increase in the number of missed GP appointments in East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire is having an impact on services, health officials have said.

More than 38,000 GP appointments across the two regions were missed in one month, according to the latest data.

Dr Satpal Shekhawat, from North Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said it equated to nearly 600 hours of clinical work in his area.

"That's a big loss when we are under pressure to see people," he said.

Dr Satpal Shekhawat said the missed appointments had an impact on other patients

Dr Shekhawat, medical director of North Lincolnshire CCG, said there were 3,600 missed appointments in November in North Lincolnshire alone, which was up by about 600 on the previous month.

That was about 3.5% of the total number of appointments offered, equating to the time of "about 15 full-time GPs", he said.

"We've lost that time where we could have seen someone else and that person who wanted the appointment [is probably] going to contact us again for another appointment," Dr Shekhawat added.

He said people sometimes turned up at the wrong time, simply forgot, or gave up trying to get through on the phone.

"I understand no-one does it on purpose, but it is happening," he added.

Dr Shekhawat urged people to cancel an appointment if it was no longer needed.

Patients could use the NHS app or email if they were able to.

Medical secretary Cheryl Gagg said it was incredibly frustrating

Cheryl Gagg, medical secretary at Kirton Lindsey and Scotter Surgery, which is part of North Lincolnshire CCG, said no-shows were "incredibly frustrating".

"From eight o'clock in the morning, the phone lines ring non-stop, and generally within the first hour you can be booked up.

"It just wastes a lot of time," she said, adding that the appointments could have been allocated to other patients.

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Missed appointments have also risen in nearby areas, figures show, with East Yorkshire seeing the biggest increase - up from 3,607 in September to 7,069 in November.

There were 7,966 missed appointments in Hull, 3,907 in North East Lincolnshire and 16,000 in Lincolnshire.