NHS in crisis as Portsmouth records over 50,000 missed hospital appointments last year alone.

More than 50,000 hospital appointments were missed across Portsmouth hospitals in 2018, it has been revealed.

Some of these are patients are repeat offenders who are constantly failing to turn up without prior notice.

This meant over 26,000 patients failed to attend at least one of their pre-booked appointments during the calendar year.

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, over 1,000 people managed to miss three appointments last calendar year with over 200 managing to miss five or more.

The financial struggle, due to the wasted appointment space this has led to in the NHS, is at the heart of the issue.

Portsmouth NHS Hospitals Trust, who record this information, are yet to comment on the figures.

There has been much discussion as to whether the patients themselves are to blame or the problem lies within the hands of the government.

Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson, Leader of Portsmouth City Council, said patients need to take more responsibility on the matter.

“This is a big problem but one the NHS seems to be tackling”, Councillor Vernon-Jackson said.

“The time which doctors give to patients is very valuable and should not be wasted by people not turning up” he added.

It is well known the NHS is struggling on a national scale and missed appointments have been topical for some time.

Local residents have voiced their concern over this new information relating to Portsmouth and Julie Bostock, 57, from Baffins, spoke of the concern she has with patients missing appointments.

‘It costs the NHS a lot of money and I think people are being selfish,’ Julie said.

As well as the concern of missed appointments, Julie also spoke about the pressure on Queen Alexandra Hospital, (QA) in Cosham.

She said: ‘The main thing is there is one main hospital (QA) everyone goes to.’

‘There should be another hospital as it is too concentrated at QA,’ she added.

While there is a growing concern over the issue, residents like Lyn Deane, 64, from Copnor, called for sanctions for those who miss appointments.

Lyn said: ‘I think it is really bad they don’t turn up.’

She talked about her experiences as a regular user of the NHS and specifically at QA.

‘I am in and out of hospital all the time’, Lyn explained.

‘I get a couple of text messages and a lot of reminders’, she added.

Lyn also believed patients ‘need to take more care’ due to the time wasted as a result of missed appointments.

She added if people don’t turn up to their appointments then they ‘can’t be bothered.’