General Chat

went to my doctors after two weeks of waiting only to see that 55 patients made appointments and did not cancel them within a month.if you calculate that within two weeks i had to wait to make an appointment .28 people hadn't cancelled there appointment.i think the g.ps should charge people a fixed penalty of £10.00 and if they do it twice should be struck off their list.it is totally unacceptable especially people who are considerate enough to cancel their appointments.

I quite agree with you Lisa,our doctors are too busy by far ,,and people wasting appointments make it far worse,a fine for failure to show up without good cause seems appropriate to me.Fred.

We were only talking about this the other day and thought that people should get a £10 fine. After all, dentists charge if you miss an appointment - and mine now charges £1 a minute if you're late ... honest :)

Big problem but the answer isn't that simple is it? What does the Doc do if the patient won't (or can't) pay? Could you imagine the fuss in the "news" papers about charges being the start of privatising the NHS. I suggest a 2 tier appointment system with the "good" patients able to choose the doctor they see and book at short notice, and the others taking whatever is available, even to the point of no appointment at all and wait in the surgery 'till they get seen.

Bob, that's quite a good idea about letting the 'trustworthy' ones have first pick of the appointments and making the others wait - a long wait would soon sort out the ones who just don't turn up for appointments.