Lambeth residents miss more hospital appointments than anyone else in London, costing the NHS millions of pounds and hundreds of hours of doctors' time.

Figures show Lambeth PCT patients missed a shocking 69,886 appointments last year - an average of 191 a day.

No shows - accompanied by excuses ranging from forgetfulness to people deciding healthcare was no longer needed - are estimated to cost local hospitals more than £10m a year.

For example £743,000 was lost by St George's Hospital NHS trust between April 2007 and March 2008 when 4,882 Lambeth residents missed appointments.

A spokesman for Guys and St Thomas's Hospitals - that takes the bulk of Lambeth residents - said patients missing appointments was "very frustrating" for hospital staff.

He said the problem meant hospitals now overbooked patients to account for the number who they knew would not show up.

Yet a spokesman for Lambeth PCT refused to blame residents for not telling hospitals when they would miss appointments.

He said: "It's more important for us to understand why people don't keep appointments."

He pointed to a number of factors that contributed to the borough's disappointing figures.

"We have a very transient population," he said. "One in four people in the borough will move house this year - often people miss appointments because they change address."

He said the diverse number of languages in the borough also meant more people in Lambeth would sometimes not know how to cancel.

He said the most important thing was for patients to keep their appointments as otherwise they might not get the treatment they need or someone else might wait longer for an appointment.

He also said the PCT was looking at ways of improving reminding people about appointments, including implementing text alerts.

More than a million NHS hospital appointments were missed nationwide last year which cost the health service an estimated £600 million.

The closest London offender to Lambeth was the borough of Southwark, with 65,630 missed appointments.