Ministers demand action to cut toll of missed NHS appointments

Official figures show people failed to show up for one in 12 hospital outpatients appointments in Yorkshire in 2011-12, amounting to more than 500,000 wasted consultations.

The figure was a 10 per cent fall on 2009-10 when 9.4 per cent of patients did not attend.

Ministers say the NHS has made good progress to reduce the number of wasted appointments against a background of rising demand for consultations.

But during 2011-12 there were still around 5.5 million missed appointments across the country. Health Minister Simon Burns said more could be done to reduce numbers further.

“I’m pleased that the number of missed appointments in the NHS has gone down in the last year,” he said. “It is important that people realise that not turning up for their agreed appointments, means other patients’ care might be delayed and doctors’ and nurses’ time could be wasted, costing taxpayers money.

“Today we are highlighting the number of missed appointments so people can see the impact this is having on their NHS.

“Under the NHS Constitution we all have rights to treatment, such as being seen within 18 weeks.

“Patients often have genuine reasons to miss an appointment, but it can have a big impact on the care we can offer to other patients.

“It is important that the public understand we have responsibilities too, like not wasting precious NHS resources.”

He added: “I’m glad to see that the NHS is increasingly using simple ideas such as texting their patients before an appointment or seeing them via Skype. These could have a dramatic impact and I want to see more hospitals making use of them.”

Mr Burns said the NHS Constitution gave patients rights to access services, but patients had responsibilities too and it was important to keep appointments or cancel within a reasonable time otherwise this could jeopardise patients starting treatment within 18 weeks of a referral.

Figures for 2011-12 show that more than 1.5m of the missed appointments were for the first time patients needed to come to hospital and nearly four million missed appointments were to follow up treatment or to check up and monitor patients’ progress.

Local NHS trusts make their own arrangements for preventing missed appointments. Initiatives such as text messaging to remind patients are on the rise.