Nearly one in four individuals have missed National Health Service (NHS) appointments due to forgetting or arriving late, according to a recent NHS England survey. The study of 2,000 adults revealed 12% forgot appointments and 11% were too late.
In 2025, 16 million GP appointments were missed nationwide, equating to one no-show for every 23 appointments. This represents a significant strain, with NHS scheduling 376 million GP appointments that year, an increase of over 8 million from the prior year.
To address this, NHS England has launched the 'Tap the NHS App' campaign. It encourages patients to enable push notifications for appointment reminders and facilitates easy rescheduling. The campaign aims to streamline appointment management and reduce the number of missed slots, thereby optimizing resource allocation within the healthcare system.
Dr. Amanda Doyle, National Director for Primary Care and Community Services, emphasized the importance of cancellations for allowing appointments to be offered to others. She highlighted the NHS App as a simple tool to avoid missed appointments and expressed hope that the campaign will further boost the record number of appointments provided by GPs.