ANOTHER GP practice is throwing its weight behind a bid to tackle the scandal of thousands of patients failing to turn up for GP appointments every month in Southampton.

Bosses at Chessel Surgery in Bitterne have witnessed first-hand the frustrations of people failing to let them know they are unable to make their appointments.

Now they are supporting the Daily Echo’s Turn Up or Tell ‘Em campaign laying bare the impact of how those wasting time and resources by failing to show up deprives other injured and sick patients time to see a doctor or nurse and piles on the pressure for already stretched staff.

As previously reported 6,300 appointments were missed in Southampton in December 2015 – costing the health service a staggering £140,000. The statistics were revealed in a survey carried out by NHS Southampton City Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) which manages NHS money spent in the city.

On average each appointment costs £23, depending on whether GPs or practice nurses are seen and what treatments are administered. Across the country 61,000 appointments are lost every day by patients not bothering to show up.

The 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 a funding crisis and a shortage in GPs due to doctors retiring and leaving the service faster than they can recruit.