85,000 ‘no shows’ cost nhS millions
NHS services in Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan are counting the costs of patients not turning up for appointments after 85,000 no-shows in just a year.
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board says 23,000 new non-emergency hospital outpatient appointments in the 12 months leading to October did not go ahead due to the patient not attending.
That meant 10.1% of the total of 228,000 new appointments made in that time period did not go ahead for that reason.
In that same period, 62,000 follow-up outpatient appointments were no-shows – 11.5% of all follow-ups scheduled by the health board.
It comes after almost 300,000 outpatient appointments were missed in NHS hospitals across Wales in 2016-17.
Health boards claimed this cost the Welsh NHS £36m – but this was questioned because outpatients clinics can sometimes be overbooked.
Cardiff and Vale health board estimates each missed appointment costs an average of £160.
The health board said missed appointments put a strain on staff and could lead to increased waiting times.
A spokesman for Cardiff and Vale health board said: “The impact to the health board of missed appointments is considerable. Each missed appointment has a degree of waste associated with it with an estimated financial cost of an average of £160 per appointment.
“Further, when an appointment is missed, it puts strain on staff as the details of each failure to attend usually requires clinical review to determine whether another appointment should be made or not.
“Administrative staff will then need to update the system and send an additional letter to the patient, as well as to the referrer in cases where no further appointment will be made.
“This incurs a further financial impact (printing, enveloping and postage).
“Where rescheduled appointments are necessary, future clinic slots have to be used, taking capacity away from patients awaiting a first or subsequent appointment.
“This can lead to increased waiting times and may also place a burden on clinicians who have to fit more patients into their clinical sessions and / or undertake additional sessions.
“The latter also has an administrative impact for staff who have to set up and support these clinics, as well as nursing staff who invariably provide assistance.”
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