Should You Be Fined for Missing Your GP App.?
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Should people be fined for missing GP appointments?
It's become common to wait 2-3 weeks for appointments now and yet lots of them are being missed! GPs in cornwall recorded 117k missed appointments this year.
Pjran If you are unwell enough to need an appointment you'd think you'd be able remember lol
SamGoodship it could be a life long disability checkup and as I age my memory fails me.
SamGoodship I have memory problems to the point I have little working memory. I could be at deaths door and forget a Dr's appointment. Plus my Dr's surgery has agreed to text me reminders yet they never do.
nikkilindsey183 speak to the Practice Manager and remind them that they offered to remind you.
Yeah they should be fined if they haven't cancelled themselves my doctors are bad they will only do phone call appointments and if they want to see you then they will do a face to face
Yes you should. The NHS has been bled dry for years so why mess them around when you got an appointment booked.
nikkilindsey183 I mean: The NHS has been bled dry for years so why mess them around when you got an appointment booked.
Emerge11 NHS has been burning money on stupid stuff themselves:
So much for trying to defend NHS and "bled dry for years."
Perhaps but would be a bureaucratic nightmare chasing everybody down and then you need a seper
rate head for finances as well.
Yes any health care appointment if you don't attend (without giving at least 24 hrs notice and good reason) you should be fined.
It's really bad 1st thing on a morning to get through to the doctors surgery by phone. It can take up to 20 / 25 mins to get through and no guarantee you will get an appointment. So yes, people should be fined for missing an appointment.
If your going to miss your appointment have the curtsey to ring and cancel so then someone else can have the option to take the appointment when they need it.
Pay a deposit when you book and get it back when you attend or if you cancel up to the day before.
No thats hitting the wrong people , the old and infirm harder .. and just giving the government more of a tax for another excuse to cut funding for the NHS which they have already braught to its knees.
Nhs scotland give my elderly step father a call to check he will be attending his appointments anyway .a fine would just make things tougher for the old and sick people.
Cway2018 sometimes you can’t give 24 hrs notice as I have had to cancel on the day cause I have woken up being sick , but I do think that you should be given a warning then if you do it again then they should take action
No i dont think so only if its deliberately missed because most of them are not missed deliberately as the system is senseless you don't book appointment & they book themselves when you already have different appointment they dont cancle duplicate appointments you go on appointment on time still had to wait from minuets to an hour or more but if you are late you miss it or have to wait even longer mistake from patient gets penalised but not from gp doctors now a days are late mostly
Yes it’s hard enough to get an appointment without people missing appointments.
Yes. Unless your hospitalised, in a car accident or have dementia. There are some circumstances that really can't be helped, however there are a lot more time waster.
I already have enough ADHD tax to pay. No. It's the hidden disability no one cares about nor validates. People have to have a wheelchair to be taken serious, ridiculous
kticelollies I also have adhd, it seems we're never taken seriously even by GP's. I've asked mine for adjustments so many times... Just a simple reminder the day before and every time I ask they say yes... They have never once reminded me.
kticelollies I totally agree with your opinion!! Your disability isn't taken seriously unless you're in a wheelchair and missing limbs. It is unacceptable really 
I would be interested to know who are the people that miss these appointments and why, surely if you need a doctors appointment you will turn up to it ,unless there's a genuine reason not to, Maybe a text reminder the day before would help . My Doctors are quite strict thou if you 10 mis late or more they class that as a missed appointment, even thou the doctor never runs to time and is at least running 20 mins behind often more than that.
Mango4 I'm one of the people that miss appointments because I forget due to having very poor working memory. I'm autistic which means I struggle to remember things, I have severe anxiety and depression which means there are times I do remember I have an appointment but I'm unable to leave the house or even get out of bed. And on top of that I have fibromyalgia and suffer from migraines, that can disable me some days and when I'm in so much pain I can barely get myself to the loo the last thing on my mind is appointments.
yes unless you have an exceptional reason for not attending. And all surgeries should send out text reminders day before.
I think people should be fined yes. It’s so hard to get an appointment these days so people not turning up is a massive annoyance. How to enforce the fining would be another matter though
Yes I think if you haven't been in a car crash or run over or something like that out of your control and physically stopping you then you should be fined.
Yes absolutely they should. If you ring for an appointment because you feel so ill then at least have the decency to cancel if you can't attend.. let someone else have the chance of getting one. Whether doctors, dentist, optician, even a hairdressers !! It's so selfish... Fine them..
windassp it's even more selfish having no compassion for the elderly and disabled.
It depends. I'm autistic and have adhd and I have repeatedly asked my GP surgery for reasonable adjustments which include text message reminders either the day before or the day of my appointment. Every time I ask they say yes they will do it but they never do.
I need a blood test which I should have had in September, it's taken until last week and the nurse text me an appointment. I didn't see the text because they sent me 4 other texts at the same time, they didn't check if the appointment was suitable for me either. The first I knew about was when they text to say I'd missed the appointment... All they had to do was follow up to ask if the time was OK, which it wasn't because it was at 8.30am and they know that I can't do that time because I've told them more times than I can remember. So I don't think it's appropriate to be fining people in all circumstances.
And what about people who don't have any money to live? Obviously they can't pay any fines so what will happen when they don't pay? Will the Dr's take them to court? Refuse any more appointments? You can't give some one a criminal record for missing an appointment and refusing future appointment means people will just go to A&E instead putting more strain there.
I'm theory maybe, in practice absolutely not.
nikkilindsey183 sorry but I'm sure you have a phone and you can't set a reminder? For these appointments and most elderly write the appointments down on a calendar or have someone with them same as disable people fact is for all the appointments miss could have gone to anyone else who have been waiting for weeks to be seen
Leannexxx sorry but it's obvious you have absolutely no knowledge of adhd or autism. Your comment is not only ignorant it's ableist.
Do yourself a favour and educate yourself.
nikkilindsey183 hmm I do know full well about ADHD and autism as I've got 3 grown up nephew's with them so it's not ignorant at all it's the truth yes there's different types of autism but they all don't make excuses for missing appointments like I said I'm sure you have a phone so you could save them as a reminder and if you can't make it then phone them
Leannexxx well your ignorance is clear because there aren't different types of autism at all. And if you knew anything about adhd then you'd know about executive functioning and poor working memory.... If you knew anything at all you would also about adhd paralysis, autism anxiety and that phone reminders don't often work... Or how hard it is to function on a daily basis. I have adhd and I'm autistic so I know far more than you, you may know someone but that's not lived experience. And I'm not making excuses, it's a fact and your ignorance is screaming.
nikkilindsey183 Until recently, experts talked about different types of autism, such as autistic disorder, Asperger's syndrome, pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS). But now they are all called “autism spectrum disorders there you go considering you have it you should know this as we was told all about this when my nephew's was diagnosed it
Or maybe make known offenders put down a deposit to make an appointment then get it straight back when attended. But I also agree with the earlier comment that it is going to affect the most needy and vulnerable too. Hmm it is a hard one 
It should work both ways whereby the Doctor is also fined for not keeping his appointment. My Doctor never keep his appointments and I have had to wait upto 1housr 20 minutes after the given appointment time to see my Doctor.
My surgery quite good..we get reminder texts two three days before and then the day before. Something needs to be done to make sure appointments aren't wasted. I'm in Scotland btw.
Sadly it isn't a one answer fits all.
If people are forgetting then there are alarms they can set, relatives or people that should be able to help, there could be a system in place where reminders are sent automatically. It might be an extra cost but certainly should help with the missed appointments which would probably be a massive loss anyway.
If you are having a panic attack or something, then you might not be able to phone and cancel or it would be super last minute anyway. The pressure of being charged might add to the stress of those with mental health issues so this certainly wouldn't help a lot of people.
The whole system is messed up, I wouldn't begin to know how to start to fix it. I just wish people would think before they go to A&E but I understand why some people do if they can't get an appointment, but often their problem will pass or a pharmacist can help with it.
Definitely, you should be fined. As far as I know I have never missed an appointment, I was so early for my appointment yesterday the machine wouldn’t let me check in.
In a perfect system then I agree it would be good to fine patients but an awful lot of appointments being lost are down to errors with in the system as much as patients forgetting. The other thing is that it will end up costing the NHS more to administer the system of fines that they will ever get back so its just not worth it. It will also hit the less well off and the vulnerable.
Where I am I have to pay to see the gp so you don't not show up. I do think that you should get find as its wasting GPS time and someone who's really ill could be seen
Depends on the circumstances. The only time I missed an appointment was when my 90 year-old Dad had to be taken to A&E and admitted to intensive care. I must admit it completely skipped my mind in the stress of the moment. Maybe fines can be given to persistent offenders, not to someone who has a sudden emergency once, but is reliable in general.
All missing the point, the Surgery knows who the culprits are, yet all they want to do is put a message up telling everyone how many missed appointments, they know who they are, address the issue directly!
If people haven't got the decency to cancel a doctors appointment, then yes they should be fined.
It depends entirely on the reason why. There are genuine reasons that some people don’t know they can’t make the appointment quite close to the time of the appointment and then cant get through on the phone.
My car broke down on the way to a doctors appointment and I couldn’t get through on the phone cos the doctors surgeries are always so busy.
My doctors and hospital do send reminder text messages which is helpful
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