Of the 103 million outpatient appointments booked across the NHS in 2021/22, there were on average 650,000 appointments which patients “did not attend” each month. Reducing missed outpatient appointments (DNAs) can have a positive improve patient experience and decrease waiting lists. Here’s how we’re working to reduce our DNAs at UHP…

There are many different reasons that patients may miss their scheduled outpatient appointment, many of which may be out of their control. These could include:

• The patient has forgotten about their appointment
• The patient did not attend as they felt they didn’t need the appointment
• The incorrect information was given to the patient
• The patient was unable to make it to the location of the appointment
• The patient was unable to take time off of work for the appointment
• The patient was unable to get appropriate care for a dependent to attend the appointment.

At UHP, our current DNA rate has dropped from 6.2% in March 2024 to 5.7% in April 2024. While this has improved, we still have a way to go to reach our target of less than 5%. To achieve this target, we are asking colleagues who run outpatient clinics to help support new ways of making these appointments more accessible.

The first step to this is to contact patients who do not attend their face-to-face appointment during the planned appointment time and offer them a telephone consultation instead, where clinically appropriate. Where suitable, this would result in the patient still receiving a clinical consultation and avoiding a valuable outpatient appointment not being used. This same process has already been implemented within other NHS Trusts and has been proven to have a positive impact on their patients’ as well as the Trusts attendance rates.

The Outpatients Performance team have also created an Outpatient Rebooking and Cancellation request form which will be available on the Trust website, that will enable patients to request to change or cancel their appointments online, reducing the risk of DNAs.  Information about this process and form will be communicated in due course and will be added to outpatient notification letters over the coming months.