Patients coming to The Countess of Chester NHS Foundation Trust for outpatient appointments will now receive a reminder text in a new campaign to help reduce the number of people who fail to turn up for appointments.
Over 10% of hospital outpatient appointments are currently missed which costs the Trust thousands of pounds each day. The reminder service aims to help reduce this.
Around 1,700 appointments a day are provided in the outpatient departments across both our Chester and Ellesmere Port hospitals. However, this means one in every ten patients does not attend.
Ian Harvey, Medical Director for The Countess of Chester said: “Missed appointments cost the Trust almost £3million each year and increase the length of time other people have to wait to be seen. Rates this high mean that as many as 170 people are not turning up for their outpatient appointment each day. This is unacceptable and unsustainable for the smooth running of our healthcare services and denies an appointment to another patient. We believe the introduction of a comprehensive reminder service will help to reduce the "Did Not Attend" (DNA) rate, save the Trust money and ultimately enable us to treat more people quicker.”
Patients will receive a text message seven days and two days prior to their appointment to remind them of the date and time.
Ian added: “If a patient has received a text and cannot subsequently, for whatever reason, attend they will be given the option to cancel or rearrange so that we can make the original appointment available to someone else.”
The service has been piloted since May and uses telephone and mobile numbers from details held for existing patients. Patients do have the option to opt out of the service should they wish. The service is easy to use and is completely free to patients.
Appointments missed through DNA in 2013/14
Clinic DNA Count
Ear, Nose and Throat 2,042
Gynaecology 1,037
Ophthalmology 2,982
Diabetic Medicine 1,005
Trauma & Orthopaedics 1,554
Paediatrics 1,970
