IT is a thriving Southampton community centre offering an action-packed programme of fitness classes to keep families and the elderly healthy.

But volunteers leading Freemantle and Shirley Community Centre know all too well the agony, worry and frustrations caused by the legacy of 6,300 appointments being missed a month in Southampton.

Now they are getting behind a Daily Echo campaign urging people to tackle the crisis by spreading the word among nearly 300 people who use the centre – some who reveal they have to wait up to five weeks for an appointment at their respective surgeries because slots are so pressured.

We launched the campaign after it was revealed the cost to the NHS of missed appointments was £140,000 in Southampton alone in one month.

Patients in the city failed to turn up to 6,300 slots in one month, according to figures from Southampton City Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), while across the UK 61,000 appointments are missed daily.

And with each appointment costing an average of £23, the wasted time is equivalent to a year’s work for 1,300 doctors and costs the NHS £300 million.

The centre is spreading the word by putting up posters in its entrance to attract people’s attention and remind them to keep their appointments or cancel ahead.

Elderly people attending the weekly On the Move fitness class run by Age UK were among those eager to get involved.

Centre trustee Laurence Ryan said: “People visiting us say they have to wait five weeks for an appointment and that as they are so far in the future people are forgetting them as they are not unwell anymore.”

People can also have their say on how to improve GP surgery bookings by completing an online surgery before Tuesday, May 31 via SurveyMonkey.