Shocking statistics that show thousands of GP appointments were missed by patients have led to calls for fines to be issued for no shows. Figures for one area of the UK show that 2,300 appointments are missed there every day.
The numbers for Birmingham and the Black Country say 847,866 appointments were logged as "did not attend" in the year to April, BirminghamLive reports. This equates to 6.1% of consultations and another 602,609 appointments were "unknown", meaning there is no record of the patient turning up or not.
According to a recent study, the average nine-minute GP consultation costs around £39, meaning that millions of pounds are wasted by no shows. This has led to calls for fines of up to £10 to be issued to people who do not turn up.
