04 Mar DNAs – Missed Appointments to you and me!
Interesting to see the NHS making a conscious effort to try and reduce the wastage that is “no shows”.
In both the NHS and Private sectors, missed appointments are very frustrating. Most health clinics, including Openhealth Clinic, operate a 24 hour cancellation fee charge. I believe this is more than fair. This is not meant to be a financial penalty, but simply an effective way of making sure patients who do not want to attend their appointment give enough warning so that their slot can be opened up for someone that really needs it. Patients in pain or in a state of high anxiety, need to be seen as soon as possible.
Figures released by the NHS do not make great reading. Some local surgeries can experience some 150 DNAs per week. That is shocking. Even worse is the outpatient appointments. There are approximately 94 million of these a year. Approximately 7 million of those are no shows. That’s over 7%, ie 1 in 13. So, when you’re given an initial appointment with a Cardiologist in four months time, you now know partly why!
No Comments