'No plans' to fine patients for missing NHS appointments minister insists - as Streeting tables plans to curbs no-shows
21 October 2024, 09:30
Labours' care minister has insisted the government has "no plans" to introduce fines for missed NHS appointments, despite claims Wes Streeting is tabling the idea.
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The Health Minister is quoted as saying he would be more "open-minded" to the concept of fines for no-show patients should NHS reforms fail to reduce the number of missed appointments.
However, speaking on the subject Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, Care Minister & Labour MP for Aberafan Maesteg, Stephen Kinnock, refuted the claims, saying patients would not be fined.
"We do not have plans to do that, Nick If you speak to pretty much every GP in the country, they’ll tell you that the vast amount of their time is being sucked into box ticking and form filling," Mr Kinnock told Nick.
He added that trials including texts to remind patients and allow them to cancel over message had reduced no-shows by 35 per cent.
"Imagine if after that we loaded them with the responsibility for administering and enforcing a fine system," he insisted, refuting the claims.
"We’re looking at fixing the system - for example, we’ve seen pilots where GPs do what restaurants do; when you’ve made an appointment you get a text asking you to confirm the appointment."
Nick pushes Care Minister to explain why fines for NHS appointments are 'no longer being considered'
"When they did that, they saw a 35 per cent decrease in the number of people cancelling," he explained.
The fines would not be effective, the minister insisted, as "sometimes people have an emergency" and when they "try to get through to their GP’s surgery and they can’t."
He continued that there are "missed appointments" through "no fault of their own".
It comes as the latest figures revealed that there were eight million missed hospital appointments last year - equating to one in 15 appointments.
It follows the news that NHS patients will be able to get their health records made available to any doctor as part of a new 'health passport' initiative put forward by the government.
Read More: Millions to receive health-monitoring smartwatches as part of 10-year plan to save NHS
The report coincides with Labour launching a consultation on how to fix healthcare in Britain.
Ministers are set to change laws to allow an easy-access health record to be available to NHS workers and patients through the service's app.
Labour hopes that the changes will help NHS clinicians work faster and help patients understand their own health better as it sets out to fix issues in the health service.
The plans, reported by The Times and The Guardian, come as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer launches a new consultation of patients and staff with the NHS.
