Dec 26 2007
Missed appointment rate high in Glasgow
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.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.