PATIENTS who fail to turn up for appointments at the Great Western Hospital are costing the National Health Service nearly £2.6m a year, new figures show.

A survey of NHS trusts revealed that 22,563 patients failed to show up for appointments at Swindon's flagship hospital in 2005/06.

The missed appointments cost Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, £2.58m last year.

Nationally, patient no-shows' are stinging the NHS by nearly £680m a year.

Money is wasted in staff time and longer waiting lists. Funds are also spent trying to track down the patients and rearrange their bookings.

The figures have been revealed by Tory MP Grant Shapps who used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain figures from nearly half of the 264 NHS trusts.

Chris Birdsall, spokesman for the Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust, said the staff, equipment and drugs organised for patients who then don't turn up costs.

"For many years the NHS has had to cope with patients not turning up for appointments, which is costly and disruptive," he said.

"It is something we are constantly looking at. We do have evening reminder clerks who ring up and remind people of their appointments and we are looking at using text alerts.

"It is the patient's responsibility to let us know and we would urge anyone who can't make their appointment to please let us know.

"It is a 30-second phone call that can save us money and allow us to give that slot to someone else."

The unnecessary cost is revealed at a time when GWH is struggling to balance its books.

As previously reported, hospital bosses plan to cut 99 jobs and freeze another 99 vacant posts in a bid to save £2.2m.

And the Adver revealed yesterday how a ward at GWH's new £24m treatment centre is standing empty because of a lack of money and changing priorities in the health service, forcing managers to consider hiring out unused facilities to the private sector to help ease budget difficulties.

Mr Shapps, the MP for Welwyn Hatfield in Hertfordshire, said: "These figures are symptomatic of the mismanagement within the NHS.

"There is a huge amount the Government could be doing to encourage hospitals to get a grip of this problem by creating more robust booking systems and sending out reminders to patients."

The hospitals with the biggest bills for missed appointments were Guys and St Thomas', London, with £10.8m; Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University, £8.6m; and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, £7.3m.

Research by the NHS has found that two out of three "no shows" had simply forgotten about their booking. Around a quarter said they felt better and decided not to go, but did not bother to cancel their appointment.

Under-fire health secretary Patricia Hewitt survived last week's cabinet reshuffle but is under orders from Tony Blair to get a grip on the financial crisis that has plunged the health service into chaos.

The Department of Health said that efforts are being made to cut the number of missed appointments, including the introduction of new electronic booking systems.