Wes Streeting has refused to rule out introducing fines for patients missing NHS appointments in the future. The Health Secretary suggested he could be convinced to implement fines for no-shows if his plans to reform the NHS do not fix the number of people missing appointments.

NHS figures show around eight million hospital appointments are missed annually at a cost of more than £1billion.

Wes Streeting said he had no plans to introduce penalties for missed appointments at present but he could be 'open-minded' to it if his plans to reform the NHS don't fix the issue

The Health Secretary said he would be more 'open-minded' to introducing fines if NHS reforms did not cut down the number of no-shows, which currently total around eight million every year.