ALMOST 2,000 people failed to turn up for their appointments at South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) last year.

In 2014/2015 a total number of people who did not show up for their appointment and failed to notify the hospital (referred to as Did Not Attends or DNAs) amounted to 1,884.

A further 536 patients cancelled their appointment on the day they were due to attend the hospital.

This amounts to 2,420 lost appointments for SWAH last year.

The figures were released to Erne North councillor, Raymond Farrell, following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Western Trust.

The number of lost appointments is a slight reduction on the previous year, where 2,668 patients were either recorded as DNA or Could Not Attend (CNA).

The figures include all consultant led clinics recorded on the hospital’s Patient Administration System (PAS) for all specialties.

During the year 2014/15, a total of 36,739 Consultant-led outpatient attendances took place at SWAH.

A further 4,093 appointments were cancelled by the patient prior to the day of the appointment during 2014/15. The outpatient booking teams reappointed to the cancelled appointments where time allowed.

A mental health practitioner within the Western Trust, Mr. Farrell said the figure was “extremely high”.

“Particularly considering we are living in an age where we have such high waiting lists for people to be seen, and there is a real urgency for people to be seen the number of DNAs is extremely frustrating.

“I accept there can be genuine reasons why people do not attend their appointments.

“But that figure is extremely high to balance that argument totally.” Commending the Western Trust for its proactive text messaging initiative which contacts individual patients to remind them of their appointments, Mr. Farrell said he believed there was an onus on the Department of Health to consider how to best make use of practitioners’ time.

“There are real consequences in all of this,” he said, “Not only do we have people sitting on waiting lists who could be seen, but our specialists, doctors, nurses and therapists are not being utilised as they should be. And resources are continually under pressure.” A spokeswoman for the Trust said the cooperation of the public was essential to reduce non-attendance for hospital outpatient appointments.

“There may be good reasons why people are not able to make an appointment and the Trust acknowledges that on occasions it may have to reschedule a clinic, for example if an essential staff member is sick. Where possible we would ask patients with an appointment to let the hospital know if they won’t be able to attend and to do this at the earliest opportunity.

“The impact on the health service of patients not showing up to appointments is a waste of staff time and resources. The appointment slot is an actual time with a member of staff dedicated to patient care. We know there are genuine reasons why some patients do not attend for their appointments but every missed appointment is a lost opportunity for someone else to be seen.

“As part of its attempts to reduce non-attendance, the Trust has in place a system for booking outpatient appointments, where patients are given a choice of dates and times and they can select one that best suits them. From November 2012 patients attending outpatient appointments across the Western Trust area receive a SMS text to their mobile phone or an automated voicecall to their landline, reminding them of their outpatient appointment one week prior to their appointment. The Trust has also been alerting people to the numbers of missed appointment by publicising non-attendance figures in outpatient areas.”