Cost of NHS missed appointments £1.2bn

[Tiredallthetimeneedsleep]

Currently in hospital with nothing better to do than scroll MN and perusing the web. Was shocked to find the cost of NHS missed appointments see attached

Maybe they could start by making sure that the letters get to people before the bloody appointment date.

This. The only appointments I’ve missed are when I’ve got the letters months later. My mother frequently gets letters with the wrong date on them. NHS needs to move into 21st century

Agree, at least some of this is down to poor communication.

Another proportion is down to the patient being unwell and admitted to hospital. I remember one poor man phoning to cancel his clinic appointment and hearing the paramedic in the background saying sir can you please put the oxygen mask back on.

I phoned to cancel an appointment when I was in labor at another hospital. The receptionist didn’t even bother to record it properly as I had loads of messages from the lovely doctor who was worried because I didn’t show up.

I wonder how many late NHS appointments cost the economy?

The system is also always overbooked - it's a bit like flights - they count on people not turning up.

Many multiples of £1.2 billion I’m sure. Classic low level mediocre management - focus on the things you can blame on other people, not what actually makes a difference.

Disappointing to see the predictable defensive responses to this. Having worked for decades in the health service absolutely anyone who works there will tell you that people DO constantly fail to attend appointments that they absolutely did receive. It is a massive waste of resources. Often simultaneously you will read about the scandal of long waiting lists etc but as a health care worker you don’t go to the newspaper about the people who don’t turn up.

Agree with first comment. When we received a letter for my DDs ultrasound fours days after the appointment date, I was shocked when I called them to explain and they said, ‘oh don’t worry, it’s happening a lot at the moment’. Why on earth isn’t someone doing something about it then, if they know? And we all have the NHS app, and are signed up for text alerts from the local NHS trust. But not all departments use it - they’re not in any way joined up, technology wise. And even when they do use tech, no one seems to test if it’s working properly. Once after being delayed for two whole days coming back from Asia, I used the text message reply system to cancel our three asthma review appointments - approx 40 minutes each. When I went in to rebook I was told off for not showing up, I was able to show the text confirmation that I had cancelled the appointments (and did at least get an apology), but their system hadn’t logged it correctly so two whole hours of appointment time were wasted.

Absolutely
This happened to my DS who has Grand Mal Seizures.

We got post on the Tuesday morning, and the appointment with a consultant was the previous Friday. He had to wait over a Year for another one

Letters for appointments arriving too late, contact numbers on letters missing/incorrect or the phone not being answered, turning up for appointments that have been cancelled but the patient not informed, sitting in waiting rooms for several hours after an appointment time. These have all happened to family recently. I think the NHS needs to get its own house in order before it starts complaining about patients.

I think a huge factor in this is that these days it’s nigh on impossible to call a hospital and have someone answer the phone. Maybe if they got a few people on the switchboard then patients would be able to report non-attendance.

In desperation I went into the hospital to tell them I couldn’t attend my appointment in a couple of days time. I went up to reception at outpatients and was told they couldn’t do anything, I’d have to report by phone on the appointments line. I told them I’d tried repeatedly, but nobody ever answers. They didn’t care. It’s a crazy system.

I blame the people that have minor problems, jump straight in demanding appointments and then they realise they don’t actually need it anymore but don’t bother to cancel.

I have never had a problem getting my appointment letters from them.

People should absolutely turn up but the administration side has to be sorted. We went for an appointment today only to be told it has been cancelled. Letter sent 2nd class post just before the bank holiday weekend. It was never going to get to us in time. Now a 5 week wait. The last appointment was rearranged, the letter for this was sent with no postage/franking - a miracle it got to us so we could make the appointment.

It is poor that people don't turn up.

However sending unilateral appointments by letter is a crazy way to proceed in this day and age.

My DH has just been unilaterally sent an appointment for the one week this year we are on holiday.
My DM has had appointments unilaterally moved from when we could take her to when we can't. I intercepted that one as there was online notification, but she still got a letter about the moved date even though we had moved it back.

If you let people book times online to suit them they are more likely to attend.
Plus only some places seem to be able to send reminder texts, which surely would help everyone.

I just had a thought
Last March I was on the 2week pathway and due a Colonoscopy. Off I went on the Day, to be told at Reception I could either wait up to 5 hours now! or they would rebook. I chose to rebook .
Wonder how many that has happened too?

This! My dm received letters on the day of the appointment. Letters sent second class over a bank holiday. Email or phone.,, !

I’ve also seen people on social media that blame MH for being unable to attend their appointments and they can’t possibly use a phone to call and cancel because of their anxiety.

It’s the public that are the main problem.

People can get appointments?

Yes my 88 yo DM turned up for an appointment to find out it had been cancelled.

Got home to find the letter just arrived through the front door. To get to that appointment my DB had had to travel and stay with her overnight. We had moved the time carers come and she had had to get up extra early. It was a 40 min drive away from them. The whole trip took over 2 hours and exhausted her (lung condition).

There's a lot of last minute cancellation dicking around on the NHS side too. Leading by example helps too.

Yeah there needs to be big investment in the admin side, where my mum lives you also get a text with a link where you can accept the appointment, request another time etc, perfect.

Where I lived it was always a letter, I was discharged from a service as I missed my first appointment (which I had waited almost ten months for) as the letter arrive over a week after the appointment, the actual later was also dated after the appointment, not the post mark, but the date on the actual letter. So it meant another GP appointment for another referral to be made.

Typical NHS patient blaming!

My OH has had cancer for 7 years so needs appointments for various things, sometimes monthly, sometimes yearly. The sheer amount of appointments he's had no knowledge of is staggering. Probably every month or two he gets a phone call from the oncology dept or day treatment unit asking where he is or why he missed an appointment, that he knew absolutely nothing about or where he'd already contacted them to re-arrange and they'd not cancelled the original appointment. Not so bad I suppose for blood tests, but he's been put down as a DNA for MRI scans and skeletal x-rays, etc which are long appointments that have been wasted!

Even when he's made appointments in person at the oncology or day treatment unit reception desk for the next treatment/blood test/infusion, an appointment letter comes through a week or two later with a completely different date/time!

It's a complete shambles.

Not just oncology either. I've had a succession of apparently "missed" appointments at our GP surgery for myself and our son when he was young (premature with several problems at first). One I vividly remember was where I had an appointment for myself followed immediately by an appointment for my son. I phoned to cancel and re-arrange the first appointment because I wasn't sure I'd be able to get there on time and it wasn't urgent so I put it back a couple of weeks. I managed to get there on time for son's appointment, and was immediately chastised by the GP for missing my own appointment 10 minutes earlier that I'd cancelled, in person, at the GP surgery reception! I told him to look at the record to prove I'd made a new appointment a couple of weeks later and that the receptionist must have forgotten to cancel the original one. He wasn't convinced and spent the entire consultation being grumpy!

Yup.

I’ve also had to move an appointment due to having treatment for something else. I was told I should make the appointment for after June.

I keep calling the other department, telling them that. No one makes a note of it, even after the other consultant secretary emailed to say I couldn’t have this specific test while I was undergoing treatment with them and not to book it until a after a certain date.

They just keep making new appointments for a months time, then I have to keep calling back and moving it again, to be told that this time, they will definitely put a note on the system but they never do. It’s extremely frustrating and yes, one time the letter didn’t turn up and they called to ask why I’d missed the appointment - that I had told them to reschedule until after June the month before - again, appologise and a promise they would record it on the system.

So much time wasting.

No it really isn't! It's crap NHS systems and administration.