King Street Cat wrote:
I can't believe paying for missed appointments isn't already in place. It would recoup millions.
My wife works for the NHS, and people not turning up for appointments, or turning up late then demanding to be seen straight away is a regular occurrence.
People think that because it's a free service, there are no financial implications when they miss their appointments.
Yes, there will be implementation costs, and it will require a level of administration, but in a 24/7 digital age I would think there's a reasonably successful solution.
A big problem is the NHS unilaterally sending out appointment letters with no thought for whether the patient can make it. Although they have got better in many cases and liaise there are still many ludicrous examples. For example, a few months ago a letter arrived one morning saying my daughter had a hospital appointment at 2.00pm that day when they are aware she resides nearly 200 miles away and has to be collected! I and others I know have recently received short notice appointments via letter and the next day received a second letter changing the day by a couple of days. In fact, often receive two or three letters on the same day! My guess is this is deliberate so they can massage their stats / waiting lists by saying that people cancelled / didn't turn up?
