Missed appointments cost £1.6m

The number of patients failing to turn up for appointments at Staffordshire General and Cannock Chase hospitals has been slashed thanks to a new booking system.

But those who did not keep their dates still wasted almost £1.6 million of NHS cash at the two sites last year. Mid Staffordshire General Hospitals NHS Trust has renewed its plea for patients to either attend for their appointments or let staff know if they are not able to attend, so that the slot can be allocated to someone else.

The Choose And Book system, in which patients can select where and when they receive treatment, has helped to reduce those who miss their first appointments from 3,895 in 2005-06 to 3,189 in the financial year ending on March 31.

But the number of follow-up appointments in which the patient failed to show up increased from 13,798 to 14,096.

Overall, the amount of potential lost income caused by staff and administrative time wasted in patients not attending appointments, decreased from £1.67 million in 2005-06 to £1.59 million in 2006-07.

Most of that – just over £1 million – was caused by people missing follow-up appointments.

Karen Morrey, the trust's chief operating officer, said: "More than 1,000 patients a month are now booking with us through the Choose And Book system and, as they are able to select their date and time, more are attending, which is in turn reducing the amount of waste.

"We are now running a pilot project for booking follow-up cardiology appointments up to six weeks in advance of clinics, rather than longer ahead."

"We hope this will also reduce the numbers who fail to attend and, if successful, this system will be rolled out to other departments.

"We appeal to patients to keep their appointments whenever possible or let us know if they cannot attend, for whatever reason. In this way we can reallocate their slots to other patients and cut down on the waste."