Carry On Doctor, your patient's not here
With a recession settling in, we know we're probably facing cuts in public spending. It's likely to have a big effect on parts of the NHS, since our healthcare is where the largest amount of money is spent.
So why is it that so many people - more than 6 and a half million of us - miss medical appointments every year? The NHS Confederation, which represents most NHS organisations in England, says missed appointments waste hundreds of millions of pounds.
Why do people do it? Is the system tricky to deal with at your local GP surgery or hospital? Should patients be penalised if they repeatedly miss appointments?
It's the subject of our phone-in this morning - as well as posting your views here, you can text us on 85058 or email breakfast@bbc.co.uk.
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Comments
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Whilst not condoning people who don't turn up for appointments, I had to laugh at the lady from Addenbrookes on saying about time wasting, that Doctors read the patient notes before the appointments. I have often gone into a consultation and sat for minutes in silence while the doctor reads my notes, has no idea of who I am or what I am doing there!
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Of course people should be penalised if they miss appointments. If they have not called, even up to five minutes before, to say they cannot attend, then they should have a computerised penalty point put on their records and the next time they call they should be advised that one more miss and they are out. It doesn't take five seconds to call and cancel.
No-brainer, as usual.
Whilst I am on, why ask for scientific questions that your children have stumped you with, then read out dross, stupid "isn't my kid funny?" texts? Ridiculous.
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You can get a table of the number of no-shows by primary care trust here:
http://www.mediaburst.com/files/news/NHSLondon.jpg
The numbers are staggering
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I called in at my mother's house last week to check on the mail and found a card from the Ambulance Service. Apparently, my mother had not been in when they called to take her to her out-patient appointment on the 23rd July.
My mother died on the 28th February this year.
What a waste of money and time.
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It's always gone on, a small minority of patients missing appointments, just like people don't turn up for job interviews or indeed radio interviews!
It's just an occupational hazard of the system that's been deliberately exaggerated to obscure how the failed economy (notice how another few billion was injected into it by the Bank of England whilst Parliament's on holiday to prevent people noticing) attacks the central public service ethos of the NHS. It's this you should have been discussing on your phone in!
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Zeldalicious??
If you were aware that the Doctor was reading 'your' notes (albeit you regard as rather belatedly) then presumably he/she knew you were there and why?
Maybe your notes had been read beforehand and the Doctor was just clarifying certain points before speaking to you personally! Nobody's infallible!
This is all petty 'jumping on the bandwagon stuff'!
The real issue is to save the NHS from the cancer of the alleged 'free market'!
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We don't need professional politicians sitting in the House of Commons where their role is largely symbolic in passing laws to uphold an ailing economic system. We need voluntary politicians who do and say things because they mean it and where their performance is not influenced by petty parliamentary careerism!
Any issue, particularly of a personal nature relating to the MP's expense saga (like this current nonsense over Alan Duncan) is all to divert attention away from far more fundamental defects of the Parliamentary system. For instance where were the MP's when the Bank of England injected more billions of taxpayers money into the bailed out economy!
Quite simply, MP's will always be on high expenses/allowances and salaries to ensure they don't rock the boat!
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OOps sorry the above should have been posted on today's 5 Live blog
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