Rejected petition Give the NHS the option to charge people who don't turn up for appointments

The NHS waiting lists are inflated by non-attendees and each missed appointment costs the NHS around £160 (1). This abuses public resources. Firstly a reminder letter should be sent two weeks before the appointment. This should be followed up by a phone call to confirm if they can attend.

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Text message and email reminders 72 hours in advance would help the patient to remember. There should be list of those who can come at the last minute in case of cancellations. Some consultants discharge patients who fail to attend which should be encouraged. However, a fine of for failure to attend and a reappointment fee will go a long way to stop this. This would help cut NHS waiting lists.(1) https://www.dropbox.com/s/3jayarc2k9ym41q/nhs%20envelope.jpg?dl=0

This petition was rejected

Why was this petition rejected?

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.

You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.

How NHS practices manage their appointments is a matter for individual practices, but we have published the following petition, which you might like to sign:

Fine those who fail to attend their NHS appointments: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/580473

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.

Date submitted 17 July 2021
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