GP and hospital no-shows could be fined £10 under new plans

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 examining whether the introduction of fines could help reduce the millions of missed appointments each year.

The idea was put forward by Rishi Sunak during last summer’s Tory leadership campaign.

It was shelved after he became Prime Minister in October, with No 10 saying he had listened to concerns from the health sector.

But Miss Caulfield yesterday said 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 ruled out for the future’.

Ms Caulfield, a former nurse, said there was a ‘good argument for it and we are not ruling it out for the future but it is not something that we have got on the table right now’.

Asked if the policy could be in the next Tory manifesto, she replied: ‘Potentially, yes.’

According to NHS England, almost eight million hospital appointments were missed last year, equal to one in 15 of all consultations.

Missed GP appointments have been estimated at more than one million a month.. Each one missed is estimated to cost the NHS about £30.

Mr Sunak proposed that patients should be issued with a warning after their first missed appointment, with a £10 fine issued for any further ones.

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 triggered a backlash from the health sector.

Health minister Maria Caulfield revealed that senior figures are examining whether the introduction of fines could help reduce missed appointments

The British Medical Association said that fines for missed appointments would ‘not only undermine the essential trust between doctor and patient, but ultimately threaten the fundamental principle that the NHS delivers free care at the point of need, for all’.

The NHS Confederation said the bureaucratic costs of the plan ‘could well far outweigh the money brought in by the fines’.

Mr Sunak dropped the scheme as soon as he entered Downing Street in October.

A No 10 spokesman said his ‘sentiment remains people should not be missing appointments’, but added: ‘We have listened to GPs and NHS leaders and agreed now is not the time to take this policy forward.’

Government sources last night played down the prospects of the policy returning in the near future.

One said: ‘There is no work on this at the moment.’

Ms Caulfield stressed that the NHS was looking at a range of other measures to cut the number of missed appointments.

‘What we are doing is trying to remind people as easily as possible, whether that is on the NHS app, most GPs now have a tech system to remind people about their appointments, the same with hospitals as well and moving away from those letters.’

The NHS launched a major drive in January to cut the number of missed appointments as part of efforts to reduce waiting lists.

Hospitals have been told to introduce ‘short notice lists’ of patients who could fill appointments cancelled at the last minute.