Submitted by Yuvraj Jhanjee on Thursday 1st January 2026
Published on Friday 20th February 2026
Current status: Open
Open until: Thursday 20th August 2026
Current Signatures: 26
(count is updated approximately hourly)
Relevant Departments
Tagged with
48 hours ~ By the NHS ~ Cancel ~ Capacity ~ Clinical ~ Cost ~ Deposit ~ Hundreds ~ Limited ~ Millions ~ NHS ~ NHS appointments ~ notice period ~ Pounds ~ The NHS ~ vulnerability ~ waste ~ Wasted ~ work
Introduce a refundable deposit for booking NHS appointments
Introduce a flexible, refundable booking deposit for NHS appointments, where patients would pay a small amount (e.g. £5) when booking and is refunded if they attend or cancel within a set notice period (e.g. 48 hours). The deposit would be kept by the NHS only if they do not attend or cancel late.
Missed NHS appointments cost hundreds of millions of pounds, with estimates of up to a billion each year. It can also waste limited clinical capacity. A small refundable deposit could encourage attendance without charging patients for care.
We believe similar systems work in the private sector. With clear exemptions for vulnerable patients, this could reduce no-shows, free up appointments faster, improve efficiency, and protect NHS resources for those who need them most.
If you want to sign this petition (as opposed to merely discuss it), you need to do that on the government's e-Petitions website.
216.73.217.179 Tue, 23 Jun 2026 12:59:40 +0100
