By Thousands across Northern Lincolnshire miss GP appointments
An increase in the number of missed GP appointments in Northern Lincolnshire is having an impact on services, health officials have said.
Dr Shekhawat, medical director of North Lincolnshire CCG, said there were 3,600 missed appointments in November in North Lincolnshire alone, which was up by about 600 on the previous month.
Dr Shekhawat said the missed appointments equated to nearly 600 hours of clinical work in his area.
He told the BBC: “That’s a big loss when we are under pressure to see people”.
“We’ve lost that time where we could have seen someone else and that person who wanted the appointment [is probably] going to contact us again for another appointment,” he added.
The number of missed appointments equates to about 3.5% of the total number of appointments offered, ammounting to the time of “about 15 full-time GPs”, he said.
He said people sometimes turned up at the wrong time, simply forgot, or gave up trying to get through on the phone.
“I understand no-one does it on purpose, but it is happening,” he added.
Dr Shekhawat urged people to cancel an appointment if it was no longer needed, adding that patients could use the NHS app or email if they were able to.
Missed appointments have also risen in nearby areas, with East Yorkshire seeing the biggest increase – up from 3,607 in September to 7,069 in November.
There were 7,966 missed appointments in Hull, 3,907 in North East Lincolnshire and 16,000 in Lincolnshire.
Acorss Lincolnshire and Eats Yorkshire in November there were a whopping 38,000 missed GP appointments in total.
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