Rishi will introduce £10 fines for missed GP and hospital appointments

[GreenLunchBox]

How will that work, then? If you miss the phone call they'll fine you? Sounds like a license to print money to me 😂

Also so many patients receive letters from hospitals saying they've missed an appointment when they never actually received the letter inviting them for the appointment in the first place. God knows why hospitals still use snail mail. This is completely unworkable.

These two are acting like they're running for student council rather than PM of the country (see Truss wittering on about making Oxbridge interview every student that gets straight As). Tinkering around the edges and stoking culture wars when we're actually heading towards an actual catastrophe this autumn.

I tried to cancel an appointment that my consultant said I don’t need. I got a text reply saying it couldn’t be cancelled. I would be very annoyed to get a fine!

I had an unexpected GP appointment last week that I hadn’t booked! Only found out about it when I checked the NHS app for something. The call should have been 4.15 so I made sure my work diary was free but the GP called me at a different time and I was in a meeting. She did call back and was quite rude about me missing her earlier call then proceed to give me incorrect information about my medication. Think I’d like £10 from the surgery for their incompetence.

A lot of gp time is lost to people who don't show up though
Many dentist have been charging for missed appts for a while
They have to do something

You do get people who have rung the GP in the morning, GP booked them in for a face to face appointment a few hours later, patient doesn't bother to turn up.

If people can't be arsed to turn up for an appointment they need you're hardly going to get them to cough up £10 for miss it.

Missing

They ought to have a shortlist for consultant hospital appointments / scans etc. When booking Patient A in, Patient B & C could be informed they're on the shortlist and to be ready to make a last minute appointment.

Of course, it would it would need admin to set it up and nhs admin is already poor. Plus you still run the risk of all patients just not turning up or informing that they can't make it.

But it would make a realistic difference to many.

God, I hope so

Am I going to get a tenner each time they’re running 90 minutes behind? Will they reimburse my additional parking every time they’re late?? Will they pay my phone bill for the AGES I spend online trying and failing to do appointment admin to prevent me missing appointments that they’ve screwed up?

This is equivalent of water companies imposing hosepipe bans while pissing water out by the tankful in leaking pipes.

How will this work then? You can’t get a doctors appointment for love nor money here!

This will be hard to enforce. I once missed an appointment becaise I had vomiting and dirroeha.. I tried calling the hospital first thing to let them know but couldn't get through to anyone who could help though hospital switchboard took a message but told me I needed to speak to consultant secretary.. easier said than done of they don't answer phone. I could hardly turn up to let them know and frankly was hardly in a state to leave the bathroom for more than a few minutes at once!

Many vulnerable people who use the GP a lot can't afford £10 a pop. It's annoying but we have many social issues in this country.

@GuyMontag you would be surprised how many people attend A&E because they haven’t gone to their appointments and feel worse. Then expect A&E to sort out a new appointment, patients missing appointments happens more than people realise, there are some who miss them because they didn’t get their letter and I totally agree that’s not acceptable but it’s about time it was accepted that one issue is the way the public use the NHS. That alongside all the other issues causes so many problems and we can’t excuse any of them.

@gatehouseoffleet yes I had this issue with my drs , tried to call and cancel for 2 hrs as tested positive for covid so couldn't go and couldn't get through
I suggested they maybe have a email for cancellations or text line , they did say that would be a good idea
But ours shows the missed appts and its often 30 odd a week
We are lucky and get face to face now though but so many are missed , something needs to be done and a big overhaul of how etc

@itsjustnotok exactly loads of time is lost on missed appts and yes some can't be helped
But this day and age most have phones so if text message and reminders could be sent, with a cancel option maybe that could help
My drs puts a list of how many appts are missed a week and its at least 30 odd and they do text you appt when you book and a reminder

They need to make it possible to cancel/choose a date/just get better at giving appointments.
Had letters arrive after the appointment date, had times where rang for ages trying to cancel and no one picked up. Or letters arriving a couple of days before after a 6 month wait and them being arsey about cancelling, can't take a weekday off with a couple of days notice.

The thing is everyone compares the NHS to other places in say europe and wants this and that but then don't want it run any different
Its really not fit for purpose now and needs an overhaul and a change in how its used / run etc
It was brought in years ago and we are in a different place now , and money alone won't save all the problems

What about when you book the day off work,get to the hospital appointment you've waited 18 months for and the receptionist says can't see you today the computers are down !
Can't use paper and a pen obviously so the doctor won't see you! Then a week later you get a nasty letter informing you you've been referred back to your gp because you didn't attend your hospital appointment 🤷‍♀️
CAN I FINE THEM THEN.

No he won't charge that because he won't be PM.

I'm so disappointed in Sunak. Thought he could be a voice of sane conservatism, held in reserve for near future when Truss's idealogue nuttery causes her administration to implode. Instead he's rushing to bottom with more and more harsh ideas.

I'm fine with idea of £20 per appointment or means tested, whether you attend or not, btw, with some kind of "3 appointments free/year" system, or "Your next appointment free system" that GPs could allocate at their discretion, too. It's just that this £10/missed.appt idea reeks of panic.

What I don't get, and perhaps someone on this thread can tell me, is why the NHS don't overbook appointments knowing X amount of people will be no shows. Eg if they have 50 appointments available for a GP then book 55 people to attend.
They make such a fuss of people not attending (which I agree a lot will be to do with poor NHS admin) but don't seem to proactively help the situation.

I've changed appointments both at the GP and the hospital only for them to fail to cancel the original appointments. With the GP the receptionist rang to find out where I was for the cancelled appointment and with the hospital one I found out when I saw the consultant on the rearranged date and he asked why I'd been a no show last time. When I explained it was their error he just shrugged and said "didn't think it was like you to not turn up".

The admin costs of this sound idiotic. Most users of the health service are children, elderly and the chronically sick none of whom, presumably will be charged.

It will cost more than £10 to collect the money. Even without the appeals, the non-payment etc.

Much better to reward those who always keep appointments or cancel within a reasonable time to be first in the queue on appointment day. Make those who miss appointments be last in the queue. So no-one is greatly inconvenienced if they fail again.

I'm sure people would be more supportive and willing to cancel if unavailable if medical 'appointments' were not just an approximation or a time window. Medical staff are not the only people who think their time is more important than yours.

And how much will this cost? What if you're on a low income and can't afford the £10?

If (and this has happened) I've had an appointment cancelled and haven't been told, will my consultant / GP be fined?

I thought I once cancelled an appointment. Got a text telling me that I had an appointment. The receptionist hadn't cancelled it.

Similar experiences here.

GP phone appointments where the doctor doesn't ring and yet you get a text a minute after the phone lines close at 6.01 pm to say you've 'missed an appointment'. (I think that one's wearing a bit thin now that huge numbers of patients have smart phones, and know damn well if they've missed a call or not);

Push Doctor appointments where the doctor doesn't turn up;

Appointment letters that take 10-14 days to arrive;

Inadequate means of re-arranging or cancelling appointments;

Appointments at 'specialist' departments such as Rheumatology where the required equipment is missing;

Other appointments at 'specialist' departments such as Rheumatology where the doctor does not know how to use the equipment and cannot do the scan that the patient is there for;

Lack of car parking at the hospital and the GP surgery, leading people to be late for or miss appointments;

Missing medical records and test results;

Poor communication between hospital department and patient, wasting everyone's time and resources.

Fine me ten quid, Rishi? You're having a fucking larf, mate.

My daughter has had some health issues the last couple of years that have involved several appointments with GP, paediatrician, etc. About half of them have involved a cock up of some sort so I’d be pissed off to be fined.

Phone appointments with the GP but they can’t give us a time slot (even morning or afternoon, or after 3pm or something) so we have to be available all day. They want DD and I on the call so we’re both off work/school all day and I end up carrying my phone to the toilet and I’m too scared to jump in the shower just in case they choose that time to call.

Appointments letters that have arrived after the appointment - the letter has even been dated the day after the appointment date.

A letter to say we’d missed an appointment so would have to go back on the waiting list - none of us knew about the appointment, no date was given on the letter, even the consultant had no clue and confirmed we’d attended all our appointments.

DD had to have an EEG, appointment came through on a date she had a GCSE exam. Called the department and they rearranged the appointment for us. Letter came to say we’d missed our appointment so would have to go back on the waiting list. When I called, it turned out they’d forgotten to cancel the first appointment when I rearranged it.

We were given 2 appointments for 2 different consultants in 2 different hospitals for the same date and time - it was a massive faff to get through to cancel/rearrange 1 of them - I left loads of voicemails and sent emails, none of which were replied to. I finally managed to get through to one of them 2 days before the appointment - and got a lecture about leaving it so late to cancel 🤦‍♀️

At the same time, we’ve received letters for appointments that don’t exist when we arrive for them, we’ve had appointments cancelled after we’ve arrived, 2 hour waits for appointments, consultants turning up to appointments with the wrong child’s notes so we’ve had to rearrange, we’ve not been given important information about stuff we need to do/avoid prior to appointments - for example, us not being told DD was having a blood test she needed to fast for so we had to rearrange.

So, yes, I’d be massively pissed off to get a fine. Unless I get a tenner every time they cock up. I’d be quids in.