Patients that miss their appointments with a practice nurse, GP or other healthcare professional are costing one CCG up to £250,000 a month.
NHS Fylde and Wyre CCG reported a total of 6,893 missed appointments in December 2017. They calculated the cost of a missed appointment with a practice nurse at £12, and a GP at £36, meaning the near 7,000 missed appointments for that month could have cost almost £250,000, enough to fund 12 new practice nurses for the CCG.
Over the course of a year, patients failing to attend could cost almost £3 million.
The Mount View Practice in Fleetwood had the most DNAs of all surgeries within the CCG, at 423 – one of three practices to have more than 400 DNAs in the month of December.
Dr Tony Naughton, clinical chief officer at NHS Fylde and Wyre CCG, said: ‘What is particularly worrying about these figures is that they are from a month when a lot of practices saw a reduction in DNAs (did not attends) and so actually show a better picture than normal.
‘If we take this figure and multiply it to cover the year that is around £3million, which is money that could be much better used elsewhere within the health economy.’
