Tens of thousands of missed outpatient appointments at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals Trust

It comes as the number of missed appointments across England topped 8 million for the first time in 2022-23.

The Patients Association said it would like to see "the health service be more curious and compassionate" about patients' absence.

NHS England figures show patients did not attend 53,630 outpatient appointments at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in 2022-23 – up from 51,100 the year before.

It accounted for ten per cent of the 512,340 total appointments scheduled.

Nationally, a record eightmillion of 124.5 million appointments (6.4 per cent) were missed. It is the highest proportion of missed appointments since 2017-18, when 6.7 per cent went unattended.

The Patients Association said there are 8 million different stories behind the missed appointments, and called on healthcare professionals to be "curious" about why patients are absent.

Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association, said many patients who miss appointments are at risk of health inequalities, and urged the NHS to be compassionate.

She said the NHS should focus on making it easier for patients to get to an appointment, with many unable to attend due to caring responsibilities, travel difficulties, or not receiving a reminder if the appointment was booked a long time before.

The figure also showed hospitals cancelled 12.1 million outpatient appointments across the country – a rise of four per cent on the year before, and the highest figure since records began, excluding 2020-21, which was affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

There were 95.9 million attendances nationally, up on the last two years but slightly below pre-pandemic levels.

Meanwhile, patients contacted hospitals and cancelled 7.9 million appointments, also down on before Covid-19.

At Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals Trust, there was a total of 458,710 attendances.

An NHS spokesperson said: "There are many reasons why patients miss appointments, and so our main message is always it is vital people seek care when they need it.

"But if patients are unable to attend for any reason, we would ask them to let us know so their appointment can be filled by another patient who needs it."