Hundreds of no-shows clogging up Medical Centre time

Over 700 people have not shown up for their appointments at Welshpool Medical Centre this year, it has been revealed.

The astonishing figure was shared by the ‘Doctors’ in a bid to highlight the situation with 174 patients failing to show up in May alone.

“We are aware that at times our patients find it difficult to gain a routine appointment with a doctor, nurse or a health care assistant within a certain timeframe,” said a spokesperson for Doctors Russell, Kiel, Aslam, Vibhishanan, Kelly, Kingham and Hirons. “Where such demand is unpredictable, this cannot be easily remedied.

“(But) One thing that makes it even more difficult to overcome is the problem of our Did Not Attend Rates – patients that book an appointment and don’t turn up, but don’t ring to cancel or let anyone know.

“We do understand that mistakes happen and appointments can be forgotten about or overlooked. We are offering a solution and we are asking our patients to sign up to our text messaging appointment reminder system.

“Please remember that if you do not attend an appointment, it may be another Patients denied appointment.”

Put into contact, if each appointment was 15 minutes, then 10,500 minutes (or 175 hours/four working weeks) of doctors' time have been wasted.

The 2023 figures: