According to a new survey nearly 1 in 4 people have missed an NHS appointment because they forgot or arrived too late.
In response, the NHS has launched a new campaign, urging people to turn on push alerts’ from the NHS App so they get reminders about appointments and can rearrange any they can’t make.
The survey found that patients across England found that 12 per cent said they had forgotten about an appointment in the past, and 11 per cent had arrived too late.
The latest data shows that patients did not attend 16 million GP appointments in 2025, with no shows for 1 in 23 appointments (4.3 per cent). This is the equivalent of an entire day of missed appointments at every GP practice in England each month.
The 'Tap the NHS App' campaign aims to highlight the benefits of enabling notifications, with adverts appearing on pharmacy bags, radio channels and social media.
Dr Amanda Doyle, National Director for Primary Care and Community Services at NHS England, said: “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.
“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.
“It’s fantastic to see that GPs provided more than 8 million extra appointments for their patients in 2025, and I hope this new campaign will help increase that number even more in 2026.
“I’d encourage all NHS App users to make the most of what the app has to offer so they never forget an appointment.”
Dr Zubir Ahmed, Health Innovation Minister, said: “In the busy lives we all lead, it can be easy to forget an NHS appointment or need to reorganise it at the last minute.
“That’s why I’d encourage everyone to tap the NHS App and turn on notifications – so you can stay on top of your appointments and let us know if you need to reschedule.
“When you do, someone else can be seen instead, helping us continue to cut waiting times.”
