A HAMPSHIRE MP is throwing his weight behind a Daily Echo campaign to tackle the crisis caused by more than 6,300 of patients missing GP appointments every month in Southampton.

Southampton Itchen MP Royston Smith, pictured, is among politicians regularly receiving complaints from constituents that they are unable to see their doctors’ on time.

Now he is backing our new Turn Up or Tell ‘Em campaign, laying bare the impact of how those wasting time and resources leads to extra pressure on hard-pressed surgeries.

All this causes agony and frustration for sick and injured people urgently trying to secure appointments.

We launched the campaign after we exclusively revealed how 6,300 missed appointments were recorded in the city in December 2015 alone – costing the health service £140,000 in just one month.

The staggering statistics were unveiled in a survey carried out by NHS Southampton City Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) which manages the NHS money spent in the city.

On average each appointment costs £23 with varying expenses depending on whether GPs or practice nurses or seen and what treatments are administered.

Nationally 61,000 appointments are wasted every day by patients not bothering to turn up. The lost time is equivalent to a year’s work for 1,300 doctors and costs the NHS more than £300 million.

It comes at a time when the health service is struggling with the double whammy of a funding crisis and a shortage in GPs due to doctors retiring and leaving the service faster than they can be replaced.

Mr Smith said: “Correspondence from constituents finding a difficulty in getting a GP is right up there with some of the most important things people contact me with. Every time someone doesn’t turn up for an appointment it means someone else doesn’t get one. It isn’t just the cost, it is other people with serious conditions who are being disadvantaged and causing them hardship. It’s really important people turn up or let the GP know they can’t make it.”

The Echo previously ran a Turn Up or Tell ’Em campaign after more than 5,000 appointments were missed every month across the region’s major hospitals to the tune of £6.1 million a year - or £100 for every appointment missed.