THE £1 BILLION ABSENCE
MISSED OUTPATIENT APPOINTMENTS ARE COSTING THE NHS A FORTUNE
THE NUMBER OF UNATTENDED OUTPATIENT APPOINTMENTS IS ON THE RISE
P EOPLE not turning up to out patient appointments costs the NHS £31 every second.
Analysis of NHS records across England and Wales shows a total of £988.1 million of taxpayers’ money was lost in 2016/17.
Each out patient appointment costs around £120, according to the NHS.
There were 8.2 million appointments in 2016/17 where the patient failed to turn up - without having previously cancelled. It means the NHS lost £2.7 million a day, £112,800 an hour, £1,880 a minute, or £31 a second in missed outpatient appointments during the financial year. That would be enough to fund 44,655 nurses’ starting salaries. Outpatient services are medical procedures and tests that can be done without having an overnight stay. These include GP appointments as well as scans and tests that are typically done in hospitals. The amount lost to missed outpatient appointments in 2016/17 is a record level.
Ten years earlier, in 2006/07, there were 5.6 million missed outpatient appointments which cost the NHS around £676.2 million.
The data shows the rate of people missing outpatient appointments is actually falling.
In 2016/17, one in every 14.8 outpatient appointments went unattended. That is down from one in 11.8 in 2006/07.
It is only because so many more appointments are being offered that the number being missed is still going up.
Hospitals and surgeries now use a range of methods to encourage patient attendance - like sending text reminders ahead of appointments.
A study from the Department of Health found that the most effective text message to encourage patient attendance was when it included the cost of a missed appointment.
Some GP surgeries also show monthly data on the number of missed appointments and how much medical time that wasted.
Hospitals and surgeries are also using a new e-referral system, which allows patients to book treatment at a place and time which is convenient to them.
Eve Roodhouse, director of implementation and the digital environment for NHS Digital, said: “E-referrals puts the patient at the heart of the referral because it allows patients to book an appointment at a location, date and time that is convenient to them. “Not only that, but the booking is immediate, speeding up the time it takes to be treated and reducing the number of appointments where the patient fails to attend by up to half.”