Patients who failed to keep clinic appointments with a hospital consultant cost the health authorities in Tayside and Fife over £2.6m last year.
Nearly 14,000 patients failed to attend Tayside hospitals for a first appointment with a consultant last year. Over 10,000 did not show up for appointments in Fife.
The exact total of missed appointments across both regions was 24,172.
Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said the average cost of a first out-patient appointment in 2007, the latest available figure, was £110, meaning the cost of missed appointments in Tayside and Fife last year was £2,658,920 at 2007 prices.
The figures for Tayside are an improvement with the rate of “did not attends” (DNAs) falling over the last three years (9.6% in 2007-8, 9.2% in 2008-9 and 9% in 2009-10). In Fife, the rates have risen year on year (8.6%, 8.8% and 9.3%).
The Scottish Government target is to reduce first outpatient DNAs to 9% by the end of March.
Ms Sturgeon gave the figures in a parliamentary written answer on Tuesday. The statistics were sought by North-East Scotland MSP Nanette Milne.
NHS Fife said on Tuesday the health authority had implemented schemes to cut missed appointments.
“A ‘patient-focused’ booking system has been in place for a number of years, where patients are asked to phone in to arrange an appointment at a time which is suitable for them,” said a spokesman. “This did initially reduce our number of missed appointments.Text reminders”To reduce the number of missed appointments further, NHS Fife has piloted a text reminder system in a few specialities over the last year and is examining how this can be extended to all specialities.
“In addition, as our waiting times have reduced significantly over the last few years we are also reviewing our referral management and outpatient booking systems to ensure that they are able to respond to these shorter waiting times.”
Tayside is also experimenting with measures to cut missed appointments.
“We are pleased with the reduction in the number of patients who do not attend for an appointment in Tayside and have been exploring a range of initiatives which has helped reduce the number of DNAs,” said an NHS Tayside spokesman.
“There are a number of improvement initiatives progressing to further reduce the DNA rate.”