patients miss 16 million appointments

[hembo]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5274626.stm

 

 

shocking waste of resources

[hembo]

surely there must be some charge for frequent offenders?

[wirral sea fishing]

all well and good if the appointment actually arrives to the person, i have had a problem with my post since the regular postie left and since then we have had temps, my son was waiting for an operation that we had been told would happen pretty soon, if i had not have phoned up to check etc then we would not have even known about it, they say the letter went out but we never got it, also happened the other week for an appointment for me so is it the postie or the service itself ?

[ayjay]

It certainly sounds bad, but let's look at it another way.

 

16,000,000 divided by number of days in year- less Sundays = 51,118 missed appointments per day.

 

Now, I have to say I don't have a clue as to how many doctors there are in the UK but I do know there are about 25,000 schools - there just has to be at least two, and probably several more, doctors per school - so that amounts to less than one missed appointment per doctor per day.

[Ken L]

surely there must be some charge for frequent offenders?

 

That is I suspect the responce that the BMA's right wing members would love. They've been wanting to charge for GP attendance for years.

 

Far better to get rid of free prescriptions so that doctors surgeries arn't jammed with people who arn't prepared to pay for a bottle of paracetamol. I this were done, those who need to see a GP wouldn't have the two week waiting time to see their GP that I had to put up with with my old surgery. With that sort of wait, it's little wonder that people forget to call their doctor to let them know that they've spontaneously got better or died.

 

As for hospitals, it has to be cheaper to send a reminder than to have missed appointments. I've hads appointments 8 months ahead and there has been no hospital contact from being given the appointment to the date that it was due.

[DavyR]

As for hospitals, it has to be cheaper to send a reminder than to have missed appointments. I've hads appointments 8 months ahead and there has been no hospital contact from being given the appointment to the date that it was due.

 

Part of the problem has been the appalling history of IT in the NHS. If and when the Electronic Patient Record is ever up and running properly, the whole business of appointments might become a bit more efficient.

 

As to fines for missed appointments, most dental practices do this already, so it's not impossible that some GPs might follow suit.

[hembo]

i used the word frequent because there is a hardcore of people who dont give a sh*t in anything they do,however if the ball was one on the other foot and their appointment was cancelled at the last moment im sure they would cause a stink.

16 million appointments missed,even allowing 5 minutes per appointment is an awful lot of time that could benefit the majority and assist the nhs.

[kleinboet]

Woah!! More "info" being given to hide the REAL problem - A stupid woman saying the NHS is BETTER than ever with more money being pumped in! More money, but not enough to pay the "managers" that Labour are insisting the hospitals must have! HOW CAN YOU GIVE A "TARGET" TO A HOSPITAL?????????????

[s_mac]

hospital appointments missed, is a crime and should be stampeed out or charged for.

 

doctors appointments, then thats a diff matter. if we can get the waiting time down to see your local gp, then there would be less missed appoinments. the time it takes to see them, to be honest, your body has managed to heal itself by then.

Edited August 28, 2006 by s_mac

[nursejudy]

just noticed this thread ...as i'm in the surgery just nipped and looked at the notice board last week 86 appointments missed our other surgery up the road 112.... lots of surgeries have policies of 3 strikes and you are out.