Patients failing to attend appointments are costing cash-strapped hospitals millions of pounds.

Missed appointments or "did not attends" (DNAs) at four of the county's NHS organisations have cost each one more than £2million since 2004.

Taken with the millions of pounds lost at the county's other NHS trusts the overall cost in the last two years is thought to be about £20 million.

At Worthing and Southlands Hospitals NHS Trust, 32,443 patients have failed to turn up for appointments since 2004, costing it £3,056,000.

Sussex Ambulance service has had 128,383 patients fail to turn up, costing it £2,764,385.

At Sussex Partnership NHS Trust, which leads mental health provision in the county, 11,917 patients failed to show for appointments, costing it £1,582,000.

The Royal West Sussex NHS Trust, which runs St Richard's Hospital in Chichester, has had 19,247 patients fail to turn up costing it £2,040,590.

East Sussex Hospitals' NHS Trust, which operates hospitals in Eastbourne and Hastings, said 64,585 patients failed to show for its appointments - about ten per cent of the total.

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

Lorraine Short, Head of Service Improvement, at The Royal West Sussex NHS Trust said the cost of preparing notes and gathering test results in advance of the appointment, plus staff costs on the day, added up to approximately £150 per new patient referral.

The figures have been obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Tory MP Grant Shapps who yesterday claimed it was mismanagement rather than patients that was to blame.

He said: "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."

However, NHS trusts in Sussex have said they are already doing their bit to encourage patients to notify hospitals when they could not attend and say campaigns to reduce the numbers are working.

Lorraine Short said: "Reducing our DNA rate means we can use our appointment slots more efficiently. Our new referral DNA rate is 5.2 per cent which equates to less than 3,000 patients per year.

"All our appointment letters have a telephone number to call if patients need to cancel their appointment and we explain that each appointment costs up to £150."

Nationally the rate of missed appointments has dropped from 12.2 per cent in 2001, to 10.9 per cent in the most recent quarter but they still cost the NHS nearly £680 million a year.