Re missed appointments - I and others have said this on other Nhs threads.
It's not always the patients mistake.
I've had several occasions where a receptionist has given me the wrong info, one in particular was always confusing quarter to and quarter past so telling me (and other patients, it ended up being a major complaint the practice manager had to deal with!) that the appointment was for quarter PAST 4 when actually she'd booked it in for quarter TO 4 and vice versa resulting in patients being half an hour late for their appointments and being told they couldn't have it. Or half hour early and thinking the dr was running crazy late and bugging the receptionists.
I've also had times when I was told eg "Wednesday 8th at 9.30" when Wednesday was the 7th and I wouldn't realise till I was off phone/at home and then you're not sure which they meant the wed or the 8th? And can't get through (probably cos everyone else phoning for the same reason!)
It got so bad at one point I started recording the conversations! (And told them so AND why AND spoke to the practice manager) It eventually got sorted as it WAS down to one particular receptionist!
My surgery also has a system where they send a text reminder the day before - but even these had the day/date issue cropping up - made it easy to prove to be honest. Though by the time I was speaking to the practice manager I got the impression they were already well aware (and mightily fed up with) the problem - but then why were patients still getting told off for being late? I called cos I'd had a right rant off the dr EVEN THOUGH I played the recording (where she'd told me it was quarter PAST when it'd been booked in for quarter TO)
But this isn't the only surgery or only time receptionists have given me the wrong info.
Even in the secondary care level, dd is under a specialist for her disability we once had THREE letters with THREE DIFFERENT appointments - 2 in one week 1 the week after, all different days and times IN THE SAME ENVELOPE!
The first of these appointments was for the following day, I was working at the time and so didn't open it until I got home after 5pm and frankly even if that were the correct appointment how the hell was I supposed to make arrangements to attend on such short notice?! I called first thing the next day - NONE of them were the right appointment. The right appointment was 2 weeks later.
Several times dd and I (I'm also under 2 specialists) have received the letter with the appointments AFTER the appointments happened, WHY they're still using snail mail for this I don't know. On one occasion I checked the envelope for the franking stamp - it hadn't even been POSTED before the appointment.
Now all of those "missed" appointments would have gone down in Nhs stats as "DNA" well I'm many things but a fucking time traveller ain't one of em!
It's ridiculous!!
I'm not saying there aren't time waster idiot patients but I would love to see an accurate analysis of the reasons for DNA. I'm sure the majority are ignorant patients but I'm also sure there's a significant minority where it's not the patients fault. Eg patient has become more ill even unconscious and been admitted to hospital, or there's other issues as has been mentioned before dementia etc.
Before my current surgery sorted their phone lines out they also had the one number for EVERYTHING! And only 3 lines total so it was murder getting through. So even if you made an appointment and then needed to cancel it was a nightmare trying to get through to do so.
Now they have different numbers for appointments (and cancellations), repeat prescriptions, to make nurse appointments etc it's MUCH better.
For repeat offenders who don't have a good reason they operate a "3 strikes" policy, but I gather when that receptionist was there they ended up in trouble with whichever body oversees gp's in Scotland (name escapes me right now and it's probable gonna bug me all night now!)
"You guys don't seem to be reading properly. Dementia sufferers would not pay for appointments as they would be classed as chronically ill" no YOU aren't reading - we're saying that UNTIL they get a DX (which can be a trial in itself!) they won't qualify for the exemption - therefore making it HARDER to get the bloody DX!
"People who do not have enough money go get through the month would not pay for appointments as they would be classed as low income." And AGAIN Do you really trust THIS govt - who WANT the Nhs privatised (but don't have the balls to say so!) who despise the poor, who think being poor or sick or disabled is a character flaw to fairly assess this?! Have you even heard of Universal Credit, ATOS, pip assessments, disability assessments finding TERMINALLY ILL people "fit for work", of the deaths DIRECTLY CAUSED (which they went to great lengths to hide the figures on) by their policies on the sick and disabled? No way would I trust them!
"The only people who pay for appointments are those who can afford it and are not having treatment for long term illness." If the system you're supporting were in place in the YEARS before dd and I were DX that would have been 14 YEARS of me paying for appointments for endo, 6 YEARS of paying for appointments relating to my spinal disability, 7 YEARS of paying for appointments for dds disability (and I'm being generous as from what I now know really I believe she should have been DX as a baby which would make it 11 YEARS) but from the point at which there were really obvious symptoms of SOMETHING being wrong which I reported to the GP and was dismissed as a "neurotic mum" it's "only" 7 YEARS. So would we have got a refund for all those? Chances are with the system proposed being in place it would have taken longer to get a DX (with the exception of the endo which was discovered finally via the surgery I was having for 2nd mc).