MISSED doctors and hospital appointments in York, Selby and Easingwold are draining the NHS of £1.4 million a year.

Patients missed about 35,862 doctors' appointments and 20,224 practice nurse appointments in the area's 33 practices in 2004/05, which cost around £1,009,571 at £18 each - the equivalent of 14 new doctors.

At York Hospital, more than 6,400 appointments were not kept at a cost of more than £116,081.

A further 15,621 patients avoided their follow-up bookings which cost £281,178 - the equivalent of 22 nurses or 106 hip operations.

York MP Hugh Bayley, pictured, said missing appointments was pouring NHS money down the drain and it had to stop.

"It's absolutely vital for people to tell their doctors or other health professionals if they can't make an appointment, because there's always somebody else to be seen.

"If they don't do so, it's selfish because somebody else who needs treatment doesn't get it.

"The NHS is a free service but that doesn't mean to say it costs nothing to provide.

"It's like pouring money down the drain if people don't attend NHS appointments and it's got to stop."

Mike Proctor, York Hospital's chief operating officer, said missed appointments were an expensive waste of valuable time.

But he said it was often down to forgetfulness.

"Sometimes people go to their GPs with symptoms and their symptoms might go and they don't think they need an appointment and they forget," he said.

"I don't think they understand the consequences of that and the impact it has on other patients. If appointments are cancelled in advance then we can give the slot to somebody else quite quickly. All patients have to do is phone and let us know."

John Givans, of North Yorkshire Local Medical Committee, said people missing appointments was a problem GPs had coped with for years.

"It's a considerable annoyance to practices. They have many problems to put up with and this is just one of them," he said.

"Most GPs can always find some other work to get on with if someone doesn't turn up but it deprives somebody else of getting an appointment as soon as they wanted. It is very irresponsible behaviour by the patient.

"If you can't make an appointment, all you have to do is phone up and cancel it. No practice will object to that because then they can offer the appointment to somebody else."

Sam Haward, the PCT's head of primary care policy, said: "General practitioners and their staff work extremely hard to ensure that patients are able to be seen in a timely and convenient fashion. Practices offer booked appointments for surgeries with both doctors and practice nurses.

"It is possible that up to one patient in every ten might not attend for their appointment with a GP or a practice nurse. Non-attendance appears to be higher when the appointments are booked a longer time in advance or are part of a patient's regular check-up for chronic disease care.

"Obviously, when these appointments are wasted then another patient who might have wanted to be seen at that time might then have to wait longer, or a surgery might need to be extended to fit all the necessary patients. Patients who miss appointments therefore create additional work for GPs and their staff and also potentially affect the service received by other patients.

"It is very important that if a patient no longer requires an appointment they let their practice know, so the time can be offered to somebody else."

The Selby and York PCT figures were based on the results of a survey in Yorkshire and Humber, taking into account the number of practices in the Selby and York PCT area.

Missed appointments costing millions

MORE than ten million GP appointments are being missed across the UK every year - mainly because patients simply forget about them.

Patients are failing to keep nearly six million hospital appointments a year - costing the NHS £575 million.

Research by Developing Patient Partnerships (DPP) and the Institute of Healthcare Management found patients were also missing about five million meetings with practice nurses.

Their survey of 683 GP surgeries in the UK found that 71 per cent said they would consider removing patients from their lists if they repeatedly missed their appointments.

More than two-thirds of surgeries (67 per cent) also supported the idea of charging patients for missed appointments.

DPP spokesman Dr Terry John said the results of the survey were disappointing, especially with each GP appointment costing about £18.

"On the bright side, most practices (65 per cent) believe this figure can be reduced through effective communication about the impact of missed appointments.

"This is why DPP urges patients to remember to keep or cancel their appointments and urges practices to ensure that their patients are getting the message."

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "Missed appointments matter.They waste GPs' time and NHS, and so taxpayers' resources.

"Patients are right to expect a modernised responsive and accessible service. Our data shows that over 99 per cent of people can see a GP within two days - up from 75 per cent in March 2002.

"But for their part, patients have a responsibility to keep or cancel appointments."

Updated: 08:24 Friday, August 26, 2005