Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord O'Shaughnessy on 19 March (HL6008), why the information surrounding the number of missed appointments at hospital out-patient services is not collected centrally.
As stated in my answer of 19 March 2018, data for missed outpatient appointments is routinely collected and published.
Data for missed outpatient appointments in the years 2006-07 to 2016-17 is provided in the following table. This includes consultant and non-consultant-led appointments.
Year | Total outpatient appointments | Did not attend (DNA) appointments | DNA appointments as % of total appointments |
2006-07 | 63,217,226 | 5,311,966 | 8.4% |
2007-08 | 66,649,484 | 5,553,244 | 8.3% |
2008-09 | 74,853,493 | 5,993,680 | 8.0% |
2009-10 | 84,198,458 | 6,690,258 | 7.9% |
2010-11 | 87,998,505 | 6,883,886 | 7.8% |
2011-12 | 90,956,844 | 6,785,034 | 7.5% |
2012-13 | 94,091,748 | 6,860,222 | 7.3% |
2013-14 | 101,844,824 | 7,095,839 | 7.0% |
2014-15 | 107,188,423 | 7,442,949 | 6.9% |
2015-16 | 113,298,661 | 7,519,829 | 6.6% |
2016-17 | 118,578,912 | 7,938,009 | 6.7% |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, NHS Digital
This is a count of hospital appointments, not individual patients, as the same person may have been booked into a National Health Service hospital on more than one occasion.
Information surrounding the cost of missed appointments at hospital out-patient services is not collected centrally.