Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Measures as simple as getting patients to write down the time of their doctor's appointment themselves can cut non-attendance rates, a study suggests.
Patients who fail to attend NHS appointments cost the NHS about ?700m a year, with up to six million appointment slots wasted annually.
But the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine research found practices could cut this by almost a third.
Non-attendance is a major issue for the NHS, increasing waits and costs.
Studies have also shown that the missed appointments (called DNAs after Did Not Attend) can increase inappropriate and unnecessary A&E attendance.
While there can be many reasons for patients failing to attend appointments - including feeling better, transportation problems or being unable to get through to the surgery to cancel - the most common reason is that they simply forget.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17298612
Patients who fail to attend NHS appointments cost the NHS about ?700m a year, with up to six million appointment slots wasted annually.
But the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine research found practices could cut this by almost a third.
Non-attendance is a major issue for the NHS, increasing waits and costs.
Studies have also shown that the missed appointments (called DNAs after Did Not Attend) can increase inappropriate and unnecessary A&E attendance.
While there can be many reasons for patients failing to attend appointments - including feeling better, transportation problems or being unable to get through to the surgery to cancel - the most common reason is that they simply forget.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17298612