Non-attenders cost NHS £321k last week

Last week (February 11 to February 17), 2132 patients did not attend their appointments across the region, a rate of 10.6 per cent.

However, this figure is by no means the highest in the past 12 month. In the week July 30 to August 5, 3329 patients failed to turn up - wasting £502,679 of valuable NHS resources.

A spokesperson for NHS Tayside said the health board has been working on ways to reduce the number of missed appointments.

Last July, bosses introduced a new outpatient text system to help patients remember their appointment details and reduce the number of missed appointments.

The new service sends text reminders for a number of outpatient services giving details of the appointment and encouraging patients to contact their outpatient department if they can no longer attend.

A spokesperson for NHS Tayside said: “Over 92,000 text reminders have been issued to patients since the system was launched and there has been a significant reduction in the ‘did not attend’ (DNA) rate from 12 per cent to 8.5 per cent for those services using text reminders.

“Feedback from patients and staff has also been positive and we aim to roll out the service to more areas where appropriate.

“To receive text reminders, please ensure that your mobile phone number is kept up to date with your GP practice.”

Dr Robin Smith, associate medical director for medicine with NHS Tayside, said: “People not turning up for their appointments, often because they have just forgotten, is a real issue for us and the text reminders are one of the ways in which we are tackling the numbers of DNAs recorded in Tayside.

“We would urge people to get in contact with us as early as possible if they are unable to attend their appointment for any reason.

“This allows us to rearrange a more suitable date and time for them and give the original appointment to someone else.

“This helps us reduce the number of wasted appointments and means we can make the best use of all of our precious NHS resources.”

We would urge people to get in contact with us as early as possible