£800,000 cost for missed appointments at Oswestry Orthopaedic Hospital

More than 5,000 appointments did not go ahead at Oswestry Orthopaedic Hospital in 2015 because the patient did not attend.

According to the trust that runs the hospital in Gobowen, every month on average 423 patients fail to attend a pre-planned appointment at the hospital. The figure represents 4.6 per cent of all appointments.

Missed appointments not only have a financial implication – as each appointment carries a cost of approximately £160 – but it also means that another patient who might have been seen instead is forced to wait longer than necessary.

Advance

Patients are being urged to let the hospital's booking team know in advance if they cannot attend an appointment.

The hospital is the region's main orthopaedic centre and is attended by patients from across the country seeking specialist care. Kim Barrow, director of operations at Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: "If we can cut the number of missed appointments then that will mean more people are being seen in clinics, and they are being treated faster. Everyone benefits from that – the patients and the hospital.

"I would advise patients that it is important you attend at the date and time you are offered in your appointment letter.

"If for any reason you find you cannot attend, then please let us know as soon as possible as we may then be able to offer your slot to someone else.

"We have a text reminder service in place so that we can send out reminders close to the appointment, but we know that there are more than 30 per cent of our patients who do not have, or have not provided us with, a mobile phone number.

"We expanded our phone contact service about a month ago to start calling patients in the evenings, as we know that a lot of people are not available during the day.

"That is allowing us to agree more appointments mutually with the patient and we are already seeing an impact from that, but we want to do more."

To contact RJAH's pre-operative assessment team call (01691) 404659.