TENS OF THOUSANDS of hospital appointments were not attended last year.

New figures from NHS England show patients failed to attend over 40,000 outpatient appointments at Warrington and Halton Hospitals Trust in 2022-23.

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

This figure of 40,100 missed appointments is up from 37,375 the year before.

It accounted for 8% of the 473,890 total appointments scheduled.

Nationally, a record 8 million of 124.5 million appointments (6.4%) were missed. It is the highest proportion of missed appointments since 2017-18, when 6.7% 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.

An NHS spokesperson said the service is treating record numbers of patients and dealing with ongoing industrial action.

They added: "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."