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

For my second pregnancy, I was under consultant care and high risk. I was on time or early for every appointment, but was never seen until at least an hour after my appointment time, and sometimes 2 or 3 hours. Multiply that across every pregnant woman and you have an economy wide issue.

The biggest culprit is the sheet of preprinted address labels they hoard in your notes*. No matter how many times you update the system with your address, these are never replaced.

However, no one in the system will admit this - you need to physically take the folder from them, and go to the back, and remove them. This will trigger a reprinting. There is no other way.

I missed some vital appointments over 20 years ago due to this. Despite 3 recorded complaints, the trust insisted their records were up to date (because they were). Yet letters still went astray. It was only by fluke chance that I saw my records and the sheet of labels that I realised what the problem was.

Of course that was over 20 years ago. And yet this very morning I had an appointment and yup, sure enough in my notes were 2 sheets of preprinted labels.

You will be told that they "never use the labels for letters". But also never have a vaguely credible explanation for their existence.

*Sandwell and Dudley NHS Trust

Just telling people when they will have an appointment and by letter no less is insane. People have lives and schedules of their own. They should be able to pick a time they can actually make.

different system, but I make most of my appointments online. Low labor costs, easy to reschedule, and it lets me pick a time instead of telling the scheduler over and over that I can’t make each appt offered until we magically find one. Often the conflicts are other medical appointments. That I and people like me can do it online frees up the phones for the people who still need that option.

Well I missed a surgery appt last year ! Because I’d had the operation a week before at a different hospital and somehow they’d booked in for the same procedure again, not told me and on the day I had lots of missed calls? When I answered they were asking why I hadn’t turned up !!!

Just telling people when they will have an appointment and by letter no less is insane. People have lives and schedules of their own. They should be able to pick a time they can actually make

EXACTLY SH tenants get this too

It’s arguable that these figures are misleading. Appointment slots are sometimes deliberately overbooked and /or the staff can use missed appointments usefully.

I worked with the NHS for many years as a supplier. Quite honestly they are still in the ark regarding technology. We were part of a large bid and bids costs companies £££. In the end we threatened to pull out of the process because it was clear that the trust had no idea what they were doing. They were looking for the cheapest but they needed a lot of complexity which they thought they could blag through Change Control (and get it for next to nothing because they were the NHS!). Maintenance they refused to consider because they assumed they could call, bypass the service queues and just mention people were at risk of dying.

Quite honestly I m glad to be out of it. It was truly shocking.

And no one really cares. Cottage industries being run for job protection and decisions taking far longer than they should. .

We need to stop sending out letters. Texts and emails only and if older people dont have a computer or a mobile phone that they can use then they blooming well need to find someone who can help them. My Mum didnt do technology. I did it for her and it was no big thing but some people refuse to keep with the times. They want the old fashioned way of doing things.

Join up all the trusts. Central Procurement etc. No - wait that would result in some job restructure!! So lets just leave as is.

So the admin is awful but you would like to increase the complexity to add freedom to choose ?

in fact you want to blame the NHS totally for all missed appointments ( and Royal Mail ?) and not accept that there are people who just don’t bother to show up and don’t bother to let them know ?

it might be good to get that data broken down

Totally agree with that!!

I think you are being harsh. My parent lost most of her eyesight so couldn’t read an email or text. My other parent had arthritis so their fingers didn’t work and they couldn’t use a phone. Plenty of elderly people are unable to use one and many elderly people have dementia or other debilitiating diseases that leave them confused by technology. Lots don’t have children or even a relative to read a text and a letter is much more accessible for them. You should be able to indicate your preferred method of communication so you can opt out of letters though.

Nope - we book slots per patient.

Well I’ve had more appointments cancelled on me and my kids than I’ve ever cancelled or missed. And that also means taking the day off work, showing up only to be told that the doctor isn’t in that day or it was cancelled on their records but somehow I was never informed. Once I was told no doctor, the nurse even went somewhere to check, came back said no, I left only for them to call me later saying I’d missed my appointment! My son took a couple days off work for a minor op he was very nervous about, got there and they said the doctor was sick so it was cancelled! So why not tell the patient?!? And it then took six months for them to reschedule it.
My teenage DD has MS and has had THREE appointments with the neurologist cancelled in a row and rescheduled for a whole year later! We even have one scheduled for 2026.
Ive tried to reschedule a mammogram three times now. Instead of giving me a number to call, they send a letter with an appointment. That just doesn’t work!
So those figures do not impress me at all. How about how much money patients have lost taking time off work, transport/parking, only to find no doctor or the appointment cancelled last minute? And I’d recommend them calling the patient to see if they can make the appointment, or to coordinate schedules, rather than sending a letter (which may not arrive - we haven’t had post for two weeks now in South London) with an appointment already scheduled? And why are they sending letters? Text is far far better unless it’s been noted the patient doesn’t have a mobile.

The best one we had was for DS2 who was having extended treatment to prepare for fairly major surgery. Booked the next appointment while there but a couple of weeks later got a letter amending it to a month later. Then got a letter saying he was being taken off the list because we hadn't attended the original appointment.

Slightly aside but you’re bringing it up- your tenancy agreement doesn’t say you can’t give the key to a neighbour. Neither does it say you have to be there when gas safety- or indeed any checks- are carried out.

Actually it does. But you keep insisting that you know what it says on paperwork that youve never seen 🙄

Honestly ppl on here are completely batshit where SH is concerned

The thing is that elderly, dementia, confused, etc and mental health patients probably struggle with the old fashioned "letter in the post" kind of appointment notification too! My MIL would hide appointment letters - not deliberately, but to "keep them safe" but forgot she'd got them and forgot where she'd hidden them. It was her dementia. She also "hid" other things like her cash, bank statements, bills, etc. We had to get everything online for her to stop paperwork coming through the post. At least with everything online, we could take over via apps etc to make sure nothing got missed. Unfortunately, the NHS never got on board with us asking for things to be done online, via the NHS app, etc., so postal appointments etc continued to get "lost/hidden" and then they'd phone her (despite us giving them our number as they knew she had dementia) to chase her and make new appointments, which she'd immediately forget! If only the NHS had actually used the NHS app and used text/emails for communications, she'd not have missed as many appointments as we'd have known about them and taken her.

I'm sure a lot of this stupidity is to massage waiting lists. If they know they're not going to hit the target, it's easier for them to put you down as a DNA and make you start from scratch again as that doesn't result in a cross against their targets.

My parents managed them very well as did their friends. If you don’t send texts, emails or letters then there isn’t much left apart from a phone call.

I’ve worked in SH including covering operations for 25 years. I sit on 4 boards. I’m confident in saying it doesn’t.

@Maverickess

What is maverickless?

oh cant you tag ppl in anymore

I don’t understand your posts. Are you being crazy?

You Used To Be AbleTo Tag Posters In If They Were On The Site They Didnt Have To Be On The Same Thread.

Apart from the problem neighbours the others work JUST LIKE YOU DO