Outpatients: Attendance

(asked on 28th March 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many outpatient (a) ophthalmology, (b) medical ophthalmology, (c) optometry and (d) orthoptic first appointments for adults over 19-years of age were (i) cancelled or (ii) not attended by the patient in 2015-16.


Answered by
 Portrait
David Mowat
This question was answered on 5th April 2017

The information requested is shown in the following tables.

Counts of first outpatient appointments for treatment specialties ophthalmology, medical ophthalmology, optometry, and orthoptics, that were cancelled by the patient by the hospital or where the patient did not attend for patients aged 19 years and over in England for 2015-16.

First Outpatient Appointment

19 years and over

Treatment Specialty

Total Appointments

Patient Cancellations

Hospital Cancellations

Did Not Attend

Ophthalmology

2,077,481

162,054

134,566

131,298

Medical Ophthalmology

28,424

1,950

471

3,231

Optometry

14,905

1,731

617

730

Orthoptics

48,496

5,280

2,631

3,703

Counts of follow-up outpatient appointments for treatment specialties ophthalmology, medical ophthalmology, optometry, and orthoptics that were cancelled by the patient by the hospital or where the patient did not attend for patients aged 19 years and over in England for 2015-16.

Follow-up Outpatient Appointment

19 years and over

Treatment Specialty

Total Appointments

Patient Cancellations

Hospital Cancellations

Did Not Attend

Ophthalmology

6,535,285

465,080

458,758

407,324

Medical Ophthalmology

93,530

9,324

3,625

6,743

Optometry

30,821

4,102

2,950

2,664

Orthoptics

180,124

20,566

13,710

10,823

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS Digital

Notes:

Treatment specialty codes

The following codes were used to identify treatment specialties:

130 - Ophthalmology

460 - Medical ophthalmology

655 - Orthoptics

662 - Optometry

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