38,000 ‘no show’ patients costing hospitals €3m

WELL over 38,000 people in the Galway/Roscommon area failed to turn up for outpatient appointments last year – many of them at UHG and Merlin Park Hospitals.

The ‘stay away’ patients ended up costing the HSE over €3m in lost time preparing for the appointments – now a new campaign has been launched asking people to either turn up, or else tell the hospital in advance that they can’t make it.

A dedicated call centre has now been set up to deal with outpatient appointments for UHG, Merlin Park, Portiuncula in Ballinasloe, and Roscommon Hospital, with the call centre telephone number included in all letters sent out.

During 2012, a staggering 38,341 patients didn’t turn up for appointments at the four hospitals and didn’t let the hospitals know in advance that they wouldn’t be coming.

Tony Canavan, Chief Operating Officer, Galway and Roscommon University Hospital Group said that one of the main priorities for the Hospital Group this year was to radically reduce the length of time that patients had to wait for an outpatient appointment.

He said that work had started on this at the end of last year, with the carrying out of an extensive validation exercise on the waiting list that was now complete, with appointments arranged first for those waiting the longest.

“Last year, it cost us €3,067,280 in lost time preparing for appointments for patients who did not turn up. We are asking patients to help us reduce the waiting times – turn up or tell us if you can’t,” said Tony Canavan.

Last year the Galway/Roscommon Hospital Group arranged a total of 327,585 appointments but only 289,244 of those turned up – the current waiting list for  the hospitals stands at 36,067.

 For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.