Missed appointments: A no-show can be a relief, says Shropshire GP
Most GPs are relieved when patients do not turn up, according to one county doctor – because it allows them time to catch up on their backlog of work.
Dr Mary McCarthy, who works at Shrewsbury Belvidere Medical Practice, also said that describing missed appointments as a "cost" is a "red herring".
She said: "There is no cost to missed appointments because GPs do not charge for appointments, missed or otherwise, so someone turning up or otherwise does not save them any money.
"Most GPs are quite relieved when someone does not turn up because it allows them time to catch up."
Dr McCarthy also represents Shropshire, North Staffordshire and South Staffordshire on the General Practitioners Committee of the BMA.
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She has said that more money needs to be spent on the health service, to allow GPs to spend more time with patients.
She said: "GPs see up to 40 or 50 patients a day, whereas most European doctors see 25 as maximum.
"I think we ought to be able to give patients more time in surgery. We have fewer GPs than anywhere else in Europe but we are a rich country and we can afford a better health care system than we have. We can afford to put more money in."
Meanwhile Dr Julian Povey, chair of NHS Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group, urged people to make sure they contact their practice if they are going to miss an appointment.
He said: “As we have seen highlighted recently across the NHS there are problems with patients missing appointments.
"All we ask is that if you have an appointment booked and for whatever reason you no longer need it or you can’t make it, please contact your GP practice and let them know so they can give the appointment to somebody else.
“GP practices in Shropshire are looking at ways to reduce the numbers of patients missing appointments, this includes the introduction of a text message reminder service when patients have given mobile phone numbers to their practice and as part of this, patients can simply reply to the reminder sent 48 hours prior to their appointment to automatically cancel their appointment.
"In addition, all practices have to make online services available to patients which includes appointment booking, repeat prescriptions and access to records. This is another quick and easy method to cancel appointments.”
