Which patients miss appointments with general practice and the reasons why: a systematic review

BACKGROUND: Missed GP appointments have considerable time and cost implications for healthcare services. AIM: This systematic review aims to explore the rate of missed primary care appointments, what the reported reasons are for appointments being missed, and which patients are more likely to miss appointments. DESIGN AND SETTING: This study reports the findings of a systematic review. The included studies report the rate or reasons of missed appointments in a primary care setting. METHOD: Databases were searched using a pre-defined search strategy. Eligible studies were selected for inclusion based on detailed inclusion criteria through title, abstract, and full text screening. Quality was assessed on all included studies, and findings were synthesised to answer the research questions. RESULTS: 21 years). CONCLUSION: Findings from this review have potential implications for targeted interventions to address missed appointments in primary care. This is the first step for clinicians to be able to target interventions to reduce the rate of missed appointments.