France imposing a fine for no-shows at GP surgeries.

It’s not always the patient’s fault. Dh was once sent to the wrong clinic for a minor surgical procedure. It was at least half an hour’s drive from the one he should have attended.

Then a BiL who’d had oncology appts. for several years, had an appt letter sent to an address he’d left 17 years previously! Other letters had been sent to the right address, so goodness knows why they hadn’t deleted the old one. Luckily the current owners forwarded it, just in time.
Disorganised/chaotic admin counts for quite a few no shows, I bet.

I’ve also heard of several cases where despite relatives pleading with NHS admin NOT to do it, appt. letters are sent solely to someone with dementia, who not only will never remember, but will v likely hide the letter or throw it away.

They have begged for duplicate letters to be sent to them, too, but if they don’t already have health and welfare P of A, they have been told that it’s not possible, because of ‘patient confidentiality’. I imagine this could account for a lot of wasted appts.

Charging for appointments and then claiming back a % is the only way NHS will survive. Particularly if you get to choose the provider. Might be outside our comfort zone but it is a much better system. We should take some responsibility for looking after our own health. We cannot run a modern health service -which we all demand - on out of date principles. Things have to change if they are to stay the same the stark truth is.

One point first of all: NHS dentists cannot kegally charge for missed appointments although they can refuse to see you. Private dentists can and do charge for missed appointments. Discretion is used clearly, if an unexpected situation/emergency arises.
I think that a fining fir missed appointments system would be difficult where no money changes hands at the point of delivery.
Interesting point: DH was not there to take a call from the GP surgery yesterday as he had another appointment. He did wait beyond the window of time given him by the receptionist. The GP whose call I took, denied ever being given an end time. Another appointment has had to be made. So is that a missed appointment or not?

*legally
*for
Clumsy fingers typos on phone to blame!

Fines might work, I suppose, but what does work is the system we have in Denmark, where incidently health care is free of charge.

The day before any appointment with your G.P. at hospital, with a specialist, dentist, physiotherapist you name it, you receive a text message reminding you of the time and place of your appointment.

This has saved our health care system millions every year since it was implemented, as people no longer forget appointments.

MissAdventure

I think they would have to clean up their act in this country.

Last time I went for an appointment face to face, my gp phoned me as I was in the waiting room at the surgery.

I had been marked down as a phone consultation. Their mistake.

I recently had similar thing happen to me . Face 2 Face appointment though.When after waiting 30 minutes to be called , I asked reception how much longer I was told I should have asked after 10 minutes🤷‍♀️ I was already marked as failed appointment. They had tried phoning me apparently but like a good girl I had switched phone off.

Our GP surgery posted the 'no show' figures for the previous month on our village Facebook hub. Big mistake. They obviously expected outrage/sympathy, but all they got was post after post telling them that as it was nigh on impossible to get an appointment, it was unreasonable to expect prospective patients to hang on the phone for an hour and a half to cancel an appointment, and perhaps they ought to sort out their system of bookings in the first place!

I think it is the only way to go. My local surgery posts the number of missed appointments every month and it is genuinely appalling.
Why shouldn’t we pay a small amount as a contribution which would be forfeit if we couldn’t remember/be bothered to turn up?

I think it is a very good idea in principle but with some caveats. A few years ago, I was expecting a routine hospital appointment, but when I had not heard anything for several weeks l rang the relevant department. I was then told that I had missed my appointment so would go to the back of the queue. I told the receptionist that I had not actually received the appointment so she made another one for me there and then. I have heard of this happening to many other people. Sparklefizz, at least some of the non-attenders you were told about may have been in the same position as l was.

Wonder if the population size of a country makes a difference re being contacted by text messaging?

Eg.
Denmark 5 million
Uk 67 million

Urmstongran

Wonder if the population size of a country makes a difference re being contacted by text messaging?

Eg.
Denmark 5 million
Uk 67 million

We get text messages in France too through the Doctolib booking system. Our dentist sends them as well plus all hospitals appointments, usually two or three days before and on the day. My DH's phone is convinced he has to walk to the doctor and reminds him to set off several hours before. 😂

Nearly all doctors and dentists are linked up to the app Doctorlib. We can decide date and time to suit yourselves and receive up dates eg an earlier slot is available or reminders several times with the possibility of canceling, with no charges.
The ‘fine’ I read about was an April 1st joke or 🐟 Avril as the French say.

Just the UK then in a mess with I.T. Separate systems (primary care) that won’t ‘talk’ to hospital systems. It’s a joke. A few doctors surgeries do connect to a local hub here - Manchester Royal Infirmary, Wythenshawe, Trafford General, The Christie but some lines (shared blood tests for example) are not always accessible. A right (expensive) mess in this country!

My daughter works in NHS in a major city hospital and gets really annoyed that time wasters show up at 2am for a sore arm or leg which has been bothering them for weeks. They usually openly admit they’ve not thought of contacting their gp surgery. In the meantime people who do need to be seen have to wait hours. It’s time the whole nhs was reformed

I know of hairdressers, beauticians who charge for a no show or less than 24 hour cancellation. Some dentists charge a fee too. Why not GPs? If you have to wait 3 weeks for an appointment surely if you have had to use another part of the service there will be time to cancel GP.

I went to the GP surgery today. There were 452 Did Not Attends in March..It's no wonder people cannot get appointments when others just can't be bothered to not turn up. I think people should be charged if they decide not to go without letting the surgery know.

Goldieoldie15

Charging for appointments and then claiming back a % is the only way NHS will survive. Particularly if you get to choose the provider. Might be outside our comfort zone but it is a much better system. We should take some responsibility for looking after our own health. We cannot run a modern health service -which we all demand - on out of date principles. Things have to change if they are to stay the same the stark truth is.

Charging for appointments and then claiming back a % is the only way NHS will survive.

It will have to be a big enough percentage to cover the extra cost of the admin involved.

Those who miss an appointment through no fault of their own and who challenge the charge will necessitate another layer of admin.

I deal with all my partner's medical matters. He has a specialist nurse. She made an appointment for him which arrived through the post after the date of the appointment - it had been originally delivered to the wrong address.

Fortunately, contact with this particular specialist nurse is also allowed via email and she had made the appointment in an email, so it didn't matter. But this is unusual - you cannot normally have email contact with the medical personnel. And I would not have been happy had such a scheme been in place to be charged for an appointment missed through no fault of ours.

Our local physio department allows cancellations via email as long as it is at least 48 hours in advance. That is a very useful system as it means you don't have to hang on the 'phone and also have proof of cancellation.

I am thoroughly in favour of charging people who dont turn up for their GP appointments. My hairdresser charges as does my dentist, consequently most people take care to cancel if they are not able to attend. In both cases I get an automated text message two days in advance stating that if I dont cancel that day then I will be charged. This seems entirely fair to me. In both cases a simple reply suffices for a cancellation. There is no excuse in the modern world. Indeed a restaurant near to us has started the same system. You book with a credit card which is charged if you are a 'no show'.

grandtanteJE65

Fines might work, I suppose, but what does work is the system we have in Denmark, where incidently health care is free of charge.

The day before any appointment with your G.P. at hospital, with a specialist, dentist, physiotherapist you name it, you receive a text message reminding you of the time and place of your appointment.

This has saved our health care system millions every year since it was implemented, as people no longer forget appointments.

I also get a txt from my dentist, and Gp surgery re appointments. Don't know why all surgeries don't do this.

There is no excuse in the modern world. Indeed a restaurant near to us has started the same system. You book with a credit card which is charged if you are a 'no show'

Same here SunnySusie in some restaurants hereabouts.
Perhaps again, private enterprises are better than the NHS. That said ‘no shows’ to them affects money in the till. A direct hit. With ‘our NHS’ (hate that phrase now) it’s a shrug and ‘what can we do/it’s awful/a waste’ yet nothing changes.

And it’s not even a new problem it’s been going on for 30 years or more!

Surgeries that just see everyone who turns up in a certain time don't have this problem. No appointment system = no failed appointments! A couple of surgeries near us operate like this and seem to be well appreciated.

Many, many years ago my GP surgery operated a system whereby you had a walk in and wait service in the morning and appointment only in the evening. It worked well.

Aveline

Surgeries that just see everyone who turns up in a certain time don't have this problem. No appointment system = no failed appointments! A couple of surgeries near us operate like this and seem to be well appreciated.

I didn't know there were any surgeries that still operated this system.

I wish mine did.

I suppose most don't because they fear they would be overwhelmed. But, would they be?

And maybe such a system would mean less people attending A&E - if they knew they could see a doctor?

I get the feeling that the whole of the NHS is actually more 'overloaded' by the way it is run, in terms of 'systems' - form-filling, etc, data entry etc and the various protocols which are in place which appear to hinder rather than help the operation. Ticking boxes that are aimed at assessing unrealistic targets.

From what I gather, GPs are inundated with paperwork and admin.

It's almost as if technology - which was supposed to make things easier, has in fact complicated processes - and the admin gets more attention than the patients.

Dickens
It's almost as if technology - which was supposed to make things easier, has in fact complicated processes - and the admin gets more attention than the patients.
That’s a really good point.

In Scotland carrier bags start at 30p for the flimsy ones and go up from there.