News.Scotland.Org

December, 26

Travellers are facing severe problems this winter with fog making it really hard for flights to carry their operation. Due to poor visibility several flights were cancelled causing flyers to wait desperately to reach their destination. With the festive season on cards the problem has worsen as more and more people are looking for a Christmas getaway. It is known that many flights were delayed and even called off due to the foggy conditions continuing, meanwhile several flights has to be cancelled from Heathrow and Gatwick airports with poor flying conditions.

With flights unable to operate, people are resorting to road ways to reach their destination. All major airports were flooded with passengers waiting for their flights to operate; it was chaos all over the place and passengers facing tough time to fly. Many travellers reported were going for celebrating Christmas abroad, but fog ruined their plans and preparations. The British Airways informed that it will refund the airfare for its passengers whose flights were cancelled and will also offer them with rebook facility. But many travellers opted for other means of transportation to reach their destination.

It is expected that if this situation continues, then roads would be busy with travellers going to different places. But the weather forecaster has suggested that the present foggy condition will clear soon making the situation back to normal. It was noticed that about 84 flights were cancelled yesterday from Heathrow airport, and 15 flights were cancelled from Gatwick airport. Amidst all this confusion airport was buzzing with speculation and chaotic situation all waiting for the condition to get favourable for flying.

This severe problem has resulted as a nightmare for many travellers and to some extent has spoiled the festive mood of many. Also with the severe cold conditions in UK, people are heading towards other destination to beat the chill and enjoy a great season of festivals.

Scotland, Dec 26: The missed hospital appointments pose tough challenge to health chiefs in Glasgow. It is a matter of great concern as the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde offers health related services to almost a quarter of the Scottish population that amounts to 1.19 million people. One among five patients is failing to keep his hospital appointment. So the staffs have to work even harder to cater to the needs of the waiting time target.

Recent figures also shed light on the fact that even the patients who are undergoing treatment for serious ailments are also failing to turn up at the hospital. In north Glasgow hospital division, nearly 4435 patients with heart problem failed their appointments in the first nine months of 2007. Missed appointments in diabetes clinics were 2504 and gynaecology appointments were 4169.

The number of failed appointments was high in the south of the city. At least 5000 patients failed to turn up for the appointment with surgeons. In the year 2006 nearly 228877 patients missed their appointments in the whole region. This ranges to 20 per cent of the total patients appointed in the year that amounts to 1094000.

While commenting on this Spokesman of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “The figures give a clear indication about the patients’ inability to keep up with the appointment in the hospitals. In this context we request the patients to inform us about the possibility of cancelling their appointment, so that we can arrange for a new appointment for them. This will help in reducing the number of missed appointment.”

The board is now planning to invest £1.2 million for the purpose of planned care improvement programme that is expected to encourage the flow of patients and will help to minimise the missed appointment rate. The proposal includes new scheme to spot out the reason for the missed appointment cases and to chalk out the effort to minimise this number in future.