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.

Some people desperately wanting to blame people who "waste time" or "don't bother" to turn up to their appointments, and yes I imagine this applies to a small number of people, but a read of this thread shows multiple ways in which the NHS system (or lack of)is the very reason for many many missed appointments, and until that is fixed or changed, no amount of fines will change it.

If they are going to implement it, shouldnt they also implement compensation like airlines/train travel, if they are making you wait too long 🤔

Do some of you realise if less people missed appts then waiting times would be less
Yes there are geniune reasons but also sometimes people just forget or don't bother
A pp said they operate a system in the US where card is used and you book an appt so they could bring something like this in the future
Its needs to be better for patients and also no wasting resources

@Itiswasitis90 are you happy to pay more taxes and have even less resources in the nhs to fund this then
There not a profit making company

No he won’t
Nothing they are spouting will happen.
it’s all bollocks
as usual.

I think its an incredibly stupid idea to start with, extra expense on a resource that has a lot of waste.
I am just pointing out, if you can find the extra money to charge people, then there should be an equivalent for a reverse.

I've sat at many appointments, for hours past the allotted time and even sat at appointments where the consultant hasn't turned up. I have always been amicable about it but would be less forgiving if they started to invoice me for missed appointments (not that I've ever missed one but as others had mentioned sometimes your appointment letter is late or not in reasonable time to rearrange).

I'm curious about the massively disjointed NHS bureaucracy. There was a fad in politics of saying "we're going to slash management and admin budgets" in public services, as if those managers and administrators did nothing but drain costs. It would be 20% on year, then another cut and another. Did it all go so far that it's actually damaged the services it was meant to redirect resources to? Do admin budgets need at least a bit of an increase so that people can think about the work they are doing and not send letters for appointments in the past etc?

I've been experiencing this for the past 15 years. At least.

No they don’t need any more money spending they just need some one with a bit of common sense to realise that typing up things like appointment letters for appointments dates that were 2 weeks before is a complete waste of time and money. Instead of the standard response of “Well this is how it has always been done” which just suggests that the NHS has been wasting money on this type of shit for decades.

Unfortunately common sense seems to be lacking as it is something that you can’t get a qualification in.

Actually most GP surgeries are private businesses, and have been since the NHS was formed, so they ARE profit making companies!!

This would be ridiculous. My GP and hospital are great for texting about appointments but cancellations are impossible. The hospital have two outpatient lines, one for cancellations and one for appointments. They don't answer the cancellation line and there is no answerphone. If you phone appointment line, you are told they cannot help you and to phone the other line. I have been told off by a consultant for not cancelling until I showed him the 20 calls on my call log. GP you can't get through full stop.

It's all irrelevant as he ain't gonna win.

I agree @SpindleInTheWind I've been lucky that most of the time the appointment system has been ok for me & was fortunate/dogged enough to get back in. Yes I read the post about her mum with Alzheimer's, poor lady, why can't just every medical record have notes that someone is VULNERABLE & discretion to be applied? God help us all when we get old/ill & can't fend for ourselves.

Where I work a lot of NHS admin jobs are low paid plus there tends to be a culture of bulling and blame. As a result you get lots of people who just do what they're told, even if it is stupid.

I remember pitching up for an ultrasound to be eventually be told it had been cancelled (sat in waiting room with a full bladder for almost an hour at this point) and I said I don't seem to have received a text or phone to tell me this. They said - we sent you a letter 2 days ago. There was no way on earth that letter was going to reach me in time as letter all have to be collected by internal mail to sit in internal sorting office before franking before going to the royal mail (2nd class). What an absolute waste of money, staff time and my time.

Not to mention the days I spent trying to get through to a particular speciality to cancel an appointment - they'd given the wrong phone number and I got through to someone random in another section who couldn't help.

What happens when the letter for the appointment arrives in the post on the day of the appointment and the patient has to arrange special transport?

or what happens when the patient receives the letter after the appointment - which has been known to happen?

I sent an email to Outpatients to cancel an appointment for my Mother. Within 10 minutes I had received a reply advising that I would need to telephone Radiology direct. I rang them, spoke to someone to cancel, asked if I could arrange another appointment on my day off to take my Mother. She said she would get Sue to ring me in a few days. Sue rang back 24 hours later, appointment booked.

That’s how it should happen. You’re lucky though - that’s not my experience.

The most recent experience I’ve had trying to cancel was a nightmare.

DD needed tests A & B done before her big appointment C. There’s a set timescale for them to be done.

Get the appointment for A & C. Chase up B as “system isn’t joined up so you need to sort it”. Get appointment for B and it’s after C.

Call up about B and told I need to move C. I need to do it as “system isn’t joined up so you need to sort it”

Manage to get through and change C, but get told I need to move A as it needs to be done closer to new C appointment. Again “system isn’t joined up so you need to sort it” so down to me.

Phone to move A 10+ times before getting to speak to someone. New appointment is sent for A and by happy fluke manage to get it for same day as B.

Original A appointment isn’t cancelled properly so recorded as a no-show. This automatically cancels appointments B & C and referred back to clinic. We find this out when I traipse my DD the hour journey to the hospital for the appointments.