PATIENTS should be asked to pay for medical appointments up front – to make sure they turn up.

That was the call made by Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman in a Commons health debate.

The MP is anxious to tackle a problem which saw 38,000 people miss appointments at the two Calderdale and Huddersfield Trust hospitals last year and thousands more miss appointments with district nurses and day surgery units.

But Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt expressed “concern” at a suggestion from the Labour MP for people to pay up front for attending booked appointments to encourage them to turn up.

Mr Sheerman floated the idea for a “simple system” of patients paying “up front a small amount of money that they get back when they turn up” as a possible cure for public non-attendance at NHS appointments.

He said at Commons health questions: “Healthcare appointments are still bedevilled by the number of people that just don’t show, even when they are meeting consultants and senior hospital staff.

“Isn’t it about time we looked at a simple system that people pay up front a small amount of money that they get back when they turn up?

“I’m sure my constituents would take it much more seriously – if those good Yorkshire people got their money back when they turned up.”

But Mr Hunt dismissed the proposal amid concerns it would “put people off going to see their doctor if they needed to” and instead said efforts to modernise the appointments process should focus on text reminders, with technology playing a “very good role”.

Mr Hunt replied: “Well I’m interested to hear that suggestion from that side of the House which isn’t necessarily where I would have expected it to come from.

“He might be surprised at my response, which is that I would be very concerned about that.

“My concern would be if it would put people off going to see their doctor if they needed to and I would not want to do anything that deterred the people who need to most going to the NHS.”

A Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust spokesman said: “We are constantly looking for new ways to try and reduce these numbers with methods such as sending text reminders and booking appointments just weeks rather than months in advance.”

Robert Flack, chief executive of Locala, which provides community healthcare in Kirklees, said: “Our missed appointment rate is low at 5% but even so, we are looking at ways of encouraging the public to engage more with our health services.

“This is an interesting idea but whether it will be one of those ideas we use remains to be seen”.