To think that if you cancel on the day with the NHS, you should be put to the bottom of the list?

[SaltAirAndTheRust]

Unless you have a good reason of course!

I’ve just started and I’m in my first week, in this week we’ve had multiple cancel due to nerves or just not turning up. Seeing the amount of work that gets them to this point, it’s staggering! I just can’t get my head around it

It’s not the odd DNA, after all things happen, the NHS have to cancel them sometimes too at short notice, Royal Mail maybe lost the letter or the company that send the appointment letters missed one. It’s the serial offenders. Depending on what the patients ailment is we cannot discharge some patients. It is frustrating booking an appointment knowing full well they won’t come when other patients get upset their appointments are delayed longer than they would like. The NHS pride themselves on treating all patients and not judging so we can only do what we can 🤷‍♀️

Yes, but I think there’d be a lot of time wasted debating the legitimacy of the reason. And for that reason, it should be logged & applied to serial offenders rather than ad-hoc mistakes.
That said, under the private system you pay whether or not you attend. Perhaps we should trial that to get people used to the private systems.

Ideas like this are fine on paper, but then you get into the realities of how it would all be decided. Who gets to say that a service we pay for with our taxes to be free at the point of use will start charging people for missing appointments, and who makes the criteria? It's all very well adding on a 'unless it's for good reason of course', but we know that people who genuinely have good reason for struggling in life don't get the support they're entitled to. Why would this be any different?

I honestly just think a policy like this would just put even more people off seeking healthcare. Lots of people have inconsistent functioning and resources, and the risk of being charged for cancelling last minute would just put them off seeking healthcare at all. Yes there are dickheads who take the piss, but I don't want a world where we make things harder for everyone just to punish a small amount of people.

I live 6 miles from one hospital and nearly 15 miles from another hospital in the same Dorset University Hospital Trust.

Departments for neurology, urology, the eye clinics and some cardio and other conditions are based at the hospital that is nearly 15 miles away.

A taxi to the 6 miles away hospital costs itro £46 to £48, round trip.

A taxi to the 15 miles away hospital costs in excess of £90 round trip. Some people would struggle to fund that kind of expense if their own transport is unexpectedly unavailable.

You are perfect for a frontline NHS role, no training required.

So what happens to you lot when you decide to finally give me an online appointment and nobody turns up, twice.

Scans and tests done and then no results given and then can’t find them and are baffled when I tell you who my Consultant is and tell me I have never been referred to him and never had an appointment with him. Really, who was it I saw, Lord Lucan?

You've just referred to "serial offenders" and priding yourself on not being judgemental in the same post!!!

You seem to be entirely typical of so many NHS staff that I've encountered over the last decade or so.

Completely blind to your own attitudes.

This response is a huge breath of fresh air. Thank you!! It is so reassuring to hear someone talking like an adult.

Why on earth would they do that? You make no sense.

I got a letter at 1.24pm today for a gynae appointment last Friday.

they cancelled my previous one the day before.

so. I’ll have been a dna.

and I’ve tried ringing the number on the letter but it rings out.

I hope to goodness you aren’t treating any of these people.

Come on OP now you’re just trolling. We’ve all had NHS letters giving us appointments for the week before because they just didn’t get sent out. It’s so common it’s apocryphal.

DD1 has her own Motability car there, and it’s insured for the care staff to drive it, so long as they haven’t had a motoring conviction in the last 5 years. The default staffing there is 1:1 for each resident - some have 2:1, 3:1 or 4:1, but that wouldn’t include a team leader or manager in their staffing.

I used to work for a small, local charity service for a while. We had so many (very) last minute cancellations and no shows. Regrettably we did have to implement a 2 strikes then suspended from using service for 6 months rule. Unfortunately you can't even use the 'unless genuine excuse' route because people do lie. Cancellation policies (particularly NHS ones) can't be too harsh though because although it's frustrating, in my experience the most vulnerable people are the ones who cancel last minute for what seems like crap reasons. There's complex socioeconomic dynamics at play.

Ds's appointments have been cancelled on the day because he won't (can't) move or because taking him would put him and others at risk due to challenging behaviour. Now he lives in supported living this is never seen as a problem but when he lived with us we had lots of hassle getting HCPs to accept this.

Yes they do. Like the one I had months before for a phone appointment, planned my time around, then the week before I had another letter moving it to 2 days later.

I duly reorganised my work days to make sure I could take the call, waited all afternoon, then phoned the dept at the end of the day when I'd heard nothing - only to discover they had no record of the second letter at all and had tried to call on the original date while I was in the back to back meetings i'd had to reschedule because of their second letter.

No doubt that will have gone down as a 'no show'.

I got threatened to be turfed off a waiting list for missing appointments. I did have a good reason though, like being an inpatient for a month at the same bloody hospital ( as I tried to explain to the depression receptionist on phone from my hospital bed)

Didn't stop the snottiness from her as I couldn't confirm when I'd definitely be able to attend a rebootked apot

Even better, imagine getting... an email or text to book a slot!

I'm sorry, but you can tell that it looks a bit like a coffin. It's pretty obvious that some people won't want to go into one of them. I suppose the fact that it's noisy isn't common knowledge, but the shape of it is.
I'm not claustrophobic, but I remember seeing those flotation tanks on TV years ago and knew immediately it wouldn't be for me.

It doesn't look anything like a coffin.

I'm sure I remember getting letters years ago to book online. Seems you can't do that anymore

Well, you're body is in a kind of box...

I think you are right OP, the money wasted on missed appointments is very high and a complete waste yet the majority of people will moan about the NHS failing to provide and under delivering.

Can't you book these patients for end of day. Say a 4pm. Then by the time the 3.30pm patient has been seen at at 4.30 then you know the regular appt misser hasn't turned up and it's not delayed anyone else

'Even better, imagine getting... an email or text to book a slot!'

I used to do this when I was a clinician. All the bloody letters we sent out drove me around the bend. I just don't think it's acceptable to send out a letter saying your appointment is on Weds 22nd at 10am or whatever - I hate that as a patient, and I wanted to give people a choice.

So I started texting or emailing parents (children's service) to say please contact us to book your child's review. About 50% of the parents got in touch promptly to book in, about 50% needed chasing and chasing and chasing. There's honestly no perfect way of doing it, and it is incredibly frustrating when you feel like you're trying to meet people halfway and give them a choice. As a previous poster said, people are people and there are no easy answers

Yeah

i I have no family round me. No problem as I’ve never asked for a thing.

when we get hospital appointments you can quarter it will be on a day which I can’t make because of child care issues or my husband is away with his job. It’s so rare and the drs know how hard I find it to get childcare. However I always cancel and never just ignore it or not turn up but it’s a pain with the new you can only change it twice. But there’s nothing I can do.