GPs and hospitals who fail to show up could be fined £10 under new plans to reduce the millions of appointments missed each year
- Health Minister Maria Caulfield revealed senior figures are considering the fines
- Idea was originally raised by Rishi Sunak during the Tory leadership campaign
People who miss GP and hospital appointments could be fined £10, under plans being considered by ministers.
Health Minister Maria Caulfield revealed that senior figures are exploring whether the introduction of fines could help reduce the millions of missed appointments each year.
The idea was put forward by Rishi Sunak during the Tory leadership campaign last summer.
It was suspended after he became prime minister in October, with No. 10 saying he had listened to concerns from the health sector.
But Miss Caulfield said yesterday it could be revived for the next Tory Manifesto.
People who miss GP and hospital appointments could be fined £10, under plans being considered by ministers (file image)
She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that the government had “no immediate plans” to impose fines, but “it is not out of the question for the future.”
Ms Caulfield, a former nurse, said there was ‘good case for it and we’re not ruling it out for the future, but it’s not something we have on the table now’.
When asked if the policy could be in the next Tory manifesto, she replied, “Potentially, yes.”
Nearly eight million hospital appointments were missed last year, equivalent to one in 15 of all consultations, according to NHS England.
Missed GP appointments are estimated at over a million per month. Each missed appointment is estimated to cost the NHS around £30.
Mr Sunak suggested that patients should be given a warning after their first missed appointment, with a £10 fine for each subsequent appointment.
He said the idea was a ‘good example of a conservative approach to the problem’ of missed appointments, which cost the NHS hundreds of millions of pounds a year.
But the idea caused a backlash in the health sector.
Health Minister Maria Caulfield revealed senior figures are exploring whether the introduction of fines could help reduce missed appointments
The British Medical Association said fines for non-compliance would “not only undermine essential trust between doctor and patient, but ultimately threaten the fundamental principle that the NHS provides free care at the point of need, for everyone”.
The NHS Confederation said the bureaucratic costs of the scheme “could far exceed the money raised from the fines”.
Mr Sunak dropped the plan as soon as he entered Downing Street in October.
A spokesman for No 10 said his ‘feeling remains that people should not miss appointments’ but added: ‘We have listened to GPs and NHS leaders and agreed that now is not the time to push this policy forward to put.’
Government sources last night downplayed prospects of the policy returning in the near future.
One said, “We’re not working on this right now.”
Ms Caulfield stressed that the NHS was looking at a range of other measures to reduce missed appointments.
“What we’re doing is trying to remind people as easily as possible whether that’s through the NHS app most GPs now have a technical system to remind people of their appointments the same goes for hospitals and we’re moving away from those letters. ‘
The NHS launched a major campaign in January to reduce missed appointments as part of efforts to reduce waiting lists.
Hospitals have been instructed to introduce “short-term lists” of patients who can keep last-minute canceled appointments.