Why do the NHS........

Because its 'procedure' !! Another box ticked!!!

This annoys me too! We get duplications of all sorts from the NHS. If they would try to save money on all the small things it would overall make a big difference.

Hah you should try working for them!

Every time my OH or I have an appointment we receive a letter the preceding week to remind us about it - seems a bit of a waste of money to me.

Your lucky Mishap last time I received an appointment it was for the same day the letter arrived. Unfortunately our post doesn't arrive until midday and the appointment was for 9.40 am

It is like the chasing letters DH gets because he hasn't yet attended a diabetic check-up clinic, when he has made the appointment but the date for it has not yet arrived.

My non-NHS dentist sends a reminder by email which doesn't cost anything. Surely the NHS could use email or text if a patient provides these. Think of the saving in postage. Apologies to any gran who has Royal Mail shares!

So does mine Anno and my GP.

On the other hand, DH gets paid every month by the NHS and we get four different letters each time explaining the different components of his pay!

My hip gets checked every year and I'm immediately sent an appointment for a year ahead. This gets changed at least 2 or 3 times over the year. Nhs office work is unbelievably inefficient, wasteful, inaccurate, illogical, frustrating etc etc and costs so much that the nurses and midwives get paid peanuts.

I'd forgotten that apricot DS1 has his FES checked once a year, we make an appointment before we leave, he gets a letter about a week later. The appointment is usually changed once or twice before the date and he gets letters for those too!

Come to think of it, I had a phone message from the local hospital last month reminding me of an appointment. That made better sense than a letter.

www.england.nhs.uk/2014/03/05/missed-appts/
I thought this was interesting - there is a real need to remind people about appointments and it looks as though the NHS is trying to improve the way it does this. Obviously not everyone has an email address or a mobile phone so they need to address that - there is no one solution but its good they are trying . It's not just that DNAs waste money - what is worse is that other patients have to wait longer for their appointments.

Interesting figures, Grannytwice. The amount of money wasted by people not turning up for GP appointments is the same percentage as that spent on treating foreign nationals. So people not turning up for appointments overall costs far more than the amount spent on treating foreigners. They haven't said that in any information I've seen.

I'm not sure how money can be 'wasted' by people not turning up for GP's appointments - at our surgery there's always a queue at the end of appointment times to see a doctor.

Figures have suggested that more than twelve million GP appointments are missed each year in the UK, costing in excess of £162 million per year. A further 6.9 million outpatient hospital appointments are missed each year in the UK, costing an average of £108 per appointment in 2012/13.

From the NHS england website that Grannytwice mentioned. It certainly seems like money being wasted to me.

Have made an appointment for a medication review yesterday afternoon. The earliest appointment is on Saturday 19th April. It will be interesting to see if it gets cancelled from their end. Can't imagine they want to work in between bank holidays.

But how many GP visits in all each year? Does 12 million missed appointments account for 2% of all visits, which would suggest that NHS was very effective in encouraging people to turn up for appointment or 25%, which would mean they were hopeless at it.

I received a letter last year asking me to rearrange the appointment I had missed - rather annoying as I hadn't received any details of an appointment in the first place! So no doubt I was put down as another no-show

Put this on another thread a few weeks back but seems appropriate to do it again. Mr N received a hospital appointment for Good Friday, though it odd bet decided that they were being efficient. 2 weeks later it was changed 'due to unforeseen circumstances'! So they clearly hadn't foreseen that it was Good Friday! So inefficient.

career-pathways.msgfocus.com/c/16HjO3XrLXuT29HJPcLMbJ
Apparently the proportion of GDP spent on the NHS is going down from 6.5% in 2012-3 to 6.2% in 2015-6
I thought this government said it was ringfenced. It's low anyway compared to many countries.

DDs complaint was that she kept getting appointments to see her consultant but then was seen by a lowlier member of the medical team who would read her notes, examine her and then say. : 'think you need to make an appointment to be seen by the consultant'.

I had a blood test a few years ago and was waiting for results. I also had an appointment for something unrelated, two days before my appointment I was inundated with calls from the nhs, I ignored them at first as I did not recognise the number, then they rang my mobile, about ten times, in the meantime I tried ringing and just got a recorded message from the nhs. I was terrified that my blood test had found something dire and spent a terrible weekend. At my appointment they confirmed the calls were just to remind me of my appointment,(blood test ok). I immediately removed my numbers from their data base. Prior to this I was unaware they rang to remind people of appointments. this can be so scary especially as they never leave a message.