THE Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen
University Hospitals NHS Trust's 2 way text service now allows patients to
confirm, cancel or rearrange outpatient appointments when they receive their
reminder text on their mobile phones. The service, which makes managing
appointments much easier for patients, will also help to reduce the number of
missed appointments, which could have been given to other patients.
Figures show that over 150,000 people missed their outpatient appointment at the
Royal and Broadgreen since 2015, with each missed appointment costing around
£160 on average. In short...
► Nationally, missed appointments or 'Did Not
Attends' cost the government around £1billion a year and cause longer
waiting times for other patients.
► Patients will receive a text 7 days before their
appointment and 48 hours before if there is no reply to the original text.
► To benefit from the service, patients will need to
make sure the Trust and GP have their up to date contact details.
► Patients will receive a phone call to their landline
if the clinics don't have access to a mobile phone number.
Colin Hont, deputy chief nurse, said:- "Patient care is always our
priority. We know that one in ten people don't attend their appointment simply
because they forgot. When someone doesn't attend their appointment without
letting us know, it can delay treatment and increase waiting times for other
patients. If we know a patient can't attend their appointment, we can offer that
space to someone else who needs it. We're launching this across most of our
outpatient clinics. So patients can benefit from our new texting service, we're
asking that they check that our hospitals and their GP have their most up to
date contact details."
Patients can opt out of the service by replying to the text with:- 'Stop.'
