Thousands of hospital appointments are missed
Monday November 09 2009
Tens of thousands of hospital appointments are wasted every year by people who fail to turn up, new figures reveal.
We constantly hear of people with illnesses who are waiting years in some cases to see a specialist at a public outpatient clinic. However, the 'did not attend' rate for outpatient appointments in some hospitals is 20pc, double the international norm.
People who are not keeping their appointments are effectively denying somebody else a faster place in the queue to be seen.
A sample of the no-shows in hospital outpatient clinics last year reveals:
Tallaght Hospital Dublin -- 38,729 (20pc)
Mater Hospital Dublin -- 35,966 (16.4pc)
Mercy Hospital Cork -- 7,463 (16.6pc)
University College Hospital Galway -- 29,363 (18.3pc)
Rotunda Hospital -- 12,739 (16.1pc)
Limerick Regional Hospital -- 18,720 (13.5pc)
Mayo General Hospital -- 14,468 (20.9pc)
Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children Crumlin -- 19,610 (18.8pc)
Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda -- 17,541 (16.8pc)
Cork University Hospital -- 22,971 (15.3pc)
Waterford Regional Hospital -- 17,528 (13.1pc).
A spokesperson for the Health Service Executive said a missed appointment could cost "€30-€80 per appointment not kept".
He said every effort is underway to reduce the missed appointments, including texting people and writing to them to remind them.
Each hospital has been issued with standard practices they should follow to manage the issue, including scheduling of clinics and developing more links with GPs who refer the patients to the clinics.
International research has identified common problems and forgetfulness is the number-one issue.
People may have gone private rather than wait for a public appointment, others may have lost their original hospital letters.
Some may no longer have symptoms and are feeling better, while others can be simply afraid of the whole experience of being examined by a specialist and receiving bad news.
In Northern Ireland, patients who fail to show up at hospital could be fined in an attempt to slash an annual bill of almost £12m for missed appointments.
The advice to people who know they will not be able to attend on the appointed day is to ring the hospital well in advance. Your call will give someone else the chance to be treated, and it will also allow you to get a new appointment time quicker.
Your appointment letter will include a contact phone number which you can ring.
- Eilish O'Regan
Irish Independent
