MISSED medical appointments in the North East has cost the NHS millions of pounds in the last year, according to new research.
A staggering 234,484 outpatient appointments were wasted in the region by people who did not bother to turn up and failed to call in advance to cancel or reschedule.
It is estimated that missed hospital and primary care appointments are costing taxpayers in the North East up to £24m a year.
The figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre paint a worrying picture at a time when the NHS is being asked to make £20bn in efficiency savings by 2015.
Dr Alistair Blair, who is a GP in Northumberland, said: “It is almost socially unacceptable for people to miss appointments. We all need to value and respect our health service.
“There are a number of initiatives in place to remind people of their appointments, as patients receive text messages and telephone calls.
“Wasted appointments cost the NHS millions of pounds each year and it can be frustrating when a patient does not turn up.
“We know that sometimes there are good reasons, but we would always encourage patients to call their GP surgery to rearrange or cancel”.
Figures show that in County Durham Primary Care Trust (PCT) as many as 54,528 people failed to attend their outpatient appointment between November 2011 and October 2012.
This was closely followed by Newcastle PCT where there were 50,873 no-shows and Gateshead PCT where 33,486 did not turn up to their appointment.
The worst perpetrators for missing scheduled appointments in the North East were women.
And women in their 20s and 30s were particularly bad at failing to turn up, with 38,964 failing to turn up within a 12-month period.
However, a slight improvement overall has been made on the previous 12 months as there were 263,276 missed appointments between November 2010 and October 2011.
Prof Stephen Singleton, interim chief executive for NHS North of England, said: “It is good that we have seen an overall reduction in the number of missed appointments in the North East compared with the same period last year.
“This is no doubt linked to the work that NHS services are doing to better communicate with patients and to remind them about the impact that missing an appointment can have.
“However, the number is still far too high. We need people to recognise the impact of not turning up or failing to cancel their appointment if they no longer need it.”
