[pjc50]

Yeah, there's a real .. bimodality? to NHS service users. A small fraction of people, usually elderly and/or disabled, with essentially infinite health problems, take up most of the time. Everyone else has to fit in around them.

Often their inability to keep appointments is inextricably linked to the medical condition, too - either physical or mental. Often it's linked to poverty or insecure living too.

We could start trying to price them out, which will at the margin result in someone dying of a preventable condition. This seems to be becoming more politically acceptable (see benefits system, food banks, refugees etc), but it's also something people are right to be squeamish about.