Making a Date For Behaviour Change
Originally published in Best Practice Autumn 2015 issue
Every year the National Health Service loses a staggering £950m because of missed appointments, or DNAs (did not attends) – no-shows who fail to cancel their appointments. Twelve million GP appointments are missed at a cost of £162m and 7.1m hospital appointments at a cost of £788m. Not only do missed appointments incur financial losses in terms of underused specialists and equipment, and increased administration costs, but the patient population loses slots that are in high demand and the patients who DNA do not get the healthcare they need.
“Any reduction in DNAs will save money – which is good news for the NHS and good news for patients too.” says Peter Collins, Senior Stakeholder Strategy Manager at Pfizer Ltd, the UK division of the pharmaceutical multinational.
“We believe our CR strategy needs to focus on finding ways in which we can make a tangible difference to people’s health and to patients - we want to be the sort of partner that makes a positive, valued difference. We know missed appointments are a huge problem for the NHS and we want to support the NHS in finding a solution,” says Collins.
