Health Bosses Urge Patients To Keep NHS Dental Appointments
NHS bosses in Yorkshire have urged members of the public to keep their health and dental appointments in a bid to stop wasting NHS resources.
According to figures obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, there has been a significant increase in the number of patients who are failing to show up for pre-arranged health and dental appointments, also known as DNAs (did not attend), in Leeds; the number rose from 120,826 in 2010, to 127,699 in 2012/2013, with a total of 368,000 missed appointments in the city over the last three years alone.
The cost of missed appointments and those that were cancelled on the day last year in Leeds amounted to more than £20 million and it is estimated that the three year cost from 2010-2013 could be around £62 million.
The highest proportions of missed appointments were in the critical care and haemophilia units where between a third and half of all patients did not attend their appointments. The departments of dental medicine, infectious diseases and immunology and allergy, medicine and urology and dermatology within the children’s department, all reported a DNA rate of more than one in five.
Hospital bosses in Leeds said that the issue was contributing to a significant waste in valuable resources and urged people to attend their appointment or alternatively, to cancel well in advance, so that appointments can be used by others.
The news comes shortly after health chiefs raised concerns about shortfalls in the health and social care departments, which are expected to run into the millions in the coming years.
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