Failure to Keep Appointments causing Loss of Money

In the East the health service is losing more than £50m because of people failing to keep their appointments.

Despite years of similar complaint by NHS managers the situation is now becoming critical.

Douglas Pattisson from Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Huntingdon said: ‘Some people do not turn up as they feel better while others forget.’

‘Both cause us a lot of problems in lost capacity and extra work.’

Records have shown that over the last year across Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire and Suffolk more than 527,000 appointments were missed, showing an increase of 6.5% on the previous year.

MP for Welwyn Hatfield Grant Shapps blames the Government's new national appointments system.

‘The reality is £6.5bn has been spent and there is no noticeable improvement and the NHS is massively in debt.

‘It's no wonder if they spend that amount of money on systems that do not work.’

Hospitals have devised methods like reminders by text as in Norfolk; whereas Hinchingbrooke remind patients of their follow-up appointments by phone.

Of course as was the opinion of almost all the hospitals, ‘At the end of the day it's down to patients to stop wasting money.’