Key Summary:
- 16 million GP appointments were missed in 2025, costing the NHS nearly £290 million.
- The NHS is urging people to “tap the app” and switch on notifications to avoid forgetting appointments.
- Quick cancellations or rebooking free up slots and help patients get timely care.
An NHS survey has revealed that 12 percent of patients across the UK forget to attend their GP appointments while 11 percent arrive late.
Therefore, the NHS has rolled out the ‘tap the app’ campaign to assist users, by turning the ‘push alerts’ on in the gadgets’ settings section.
People aged 13 and over in England can access the NHS app to easily manage bookings, helping cut down on missed appointments.
With activated notifications, users can book or cancel GP and hospital appointments, order repeat prescriptions, choose a pharmacy, access their health records and test results, and log in easily via smartphone, tablet or the NHS website.
This way of alerting the public will ensure a better health outcomes like timely diagnosis and keeping track of their health conditions.
According to the new NHS report, 16 million GP appointments in 2025 were missed even after the NHS having the busiest year with 376 million appointments.
The 2025 Patient Claim Line report stated, each missed GP appointments cost the NHS approximately £30 per person that amounts to a total of nearly £290 million.
“People will often have genuine reasons for not being able to make an appointment or arriving too late, but it’s really important that they let us know if possible so we can offer the appointment to someone else,” said Dr Amanda Doyle, national director for primary care and community services at NHS.
She added, “One of the easiest ways you can reduce the risk of missing an appointment is by tapping the NHS App to turn on notifications to get reminders, so you can cancel or rearrange them if they need to.”
