'Rishi Sunak's £10 fine for missed GP appointments will penalize people with disabilities'

Rachel Charlton-Dailey says Rishi Sunak's proposal ignores that people miss GP and hospital appointments for various reasons - and this will disproportionately affect people with disabilities

Rishi Sunak has said he wants to impose a £10 fine on those who miss NHS appointments (

Image: Reuters)

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This weekend, Rishi Sunak quietly revealed the latest of his pledge to run for the Tory leadership. He wants to fine anyone who misses NHS appointments.

In an interview with The Telegraph, the male prime minister candidate said he wanted to impose a £10 fine on those who miss NHS appointments (GP and hospital appointments). hospital) without sufficient warning.

He mentioned that more than 15 million GP appointments are lost every year when people don't show up unannounced.

Sunak said it would only happen after a second instance and the first time the patient would benefit from the doubt - and the system would be a temporary fix to deal with the Covid-19 backlog.

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However, the proposal fails to take into account that people miss GP and hospital appointments for a variety of reasons. It is no coincidence that this will disproportionately affect people with disabilities, who depend most on the NHS, but who also have the most problems when trying to access services.

People miss GP appointments for a variety of reasons, says Rachel Charlton-Dailey (Stock Photo) (

Picture:

Getty Images/iStockphoto)

People with disabilities miss GP and hospital appointments for a variety of reasons and although we try to inform doctors' surgeries and hospitals this is not always possible, especially when it is is the firm's fault.

Yes, most of the time it can be due to illness, but those are also valid reasons, sometimes I get such bad migraines that I feel like I'm having a stroke and I can't even lift my head, the last thing I could do was call a doctor's office.

Many people with disabilities do not come due to access issues. Broken elevators, cabinets and services with steps, cabinets that only use billboards and no announcements...