“SELFISH” patients who fail to turn up for doctor’s appointments are putting a huge strain on Burnham’s crisis-hit GP surgery.

In May, Burnham Surgery, which serves 9,300 patients from its Foundry Lane base, was rated as “inadequate” by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Safety, effectiveness and leadership were all branded “inadequate” in a report that highlighted appointment delays and a lack of safety procedures as particular causes for concern.

Following the damning report, Burnham Town Council held meetings with the surgery this summer.

At the meetings, the surgery raised concerns about staffing and appointments.

The Standard revealed in July the retirement of Dr Christine Collins and Dr Latif left the surgery with just two full-time doctors.

A Burnham Town Council meeting heard on average 100 people are making appointments with the doctors and not turning up each month, while 130 are missing appointments with the nurses.

Councillor Una Norman, who was present at the talks, said: “One of the main things that concerns me is the amount of people who are making appointments with the doctors but then not turning up or even phoning to cancel. That is not acceptable and in my opinion, that is really quite selfish.”

Councillor Neil Pudney said: “The talks were extremely interesting. The surgery had a lot of concerns they wanted to raise. It is not just Burnham that is struggling, this is an issue district wide.

“Doctors do not want to stay in one place for very long. They can get a lot more money being locums and travelling about.

“There are just two doctors at the surgery now and they are looking after about 9,300 people.

“It is very concerning and I will be keeping my eye on the matter.”

A follow-up inspection is due to be carried out by the CQC at some point in November.

If improvement is not found to have been made, then enforcement actions could include closing the surgery.

The surgery was not available for comment.