Thousands of GP hours are being lost because of patients not turning up to appointments, says a Member of the Senedd. Clwyd South MS Ken Skates found that at least 13,000 slots were missed at surgeries across his constituency between April 2023 and March this year. Local surgeries provided details of their ‘DNAs’ – did not attend – to Mr Skates, who is now urging people not to waste GPs’ precious time.
“Of course sometimes people will genuinely forget or something might come up at the last minute," said Mr Skates. "But when people just can’t be bothered to turn up to appointments it has consequences for staff and other patients. “Then there’s the cost of DNAs – missed appointments cost the Welsh NHS millions every year.
” Caritas Surgery, which has branches in Cefn Mawr and Coedpoeth, was worst hit – with 3,332 DNAs over 11 months. Dee Valley Medical Centre in Overton had 1,756 over the same period, while Llangollen Health Centre and its branch clinic in Glyn Ceiriog recorded 1,503. Ruabon Medical Centre was also badly affected, recording at least 2,930 DNAs over the 11-month period according to the surgery’s published data, while Chirk Surgery suffered 1,631 missed slots.
Mr Skates said: “If we take the average appointment as being 15 minutes, we are talking thousands of hours lost in Clwyd South. MORE NEWS "Those are hours that GP and primary care staff won’t get back where they could be helping other people. “Sometimes practices will write to.
