A recent NHS report revealed that 1 in 10 hospital appointments in 2011 resulted in “no shows”.    This adds up to a staggering 5.5 million missed appointments and costs the NHS £millions each year.  Even if each patient has a genuine reason for missing the appointment, missed appointments have a knock on effect across the NHS.

In announcing the “no show” figures, the then health minister, Simon Burns, said “It is important that people realise that not turning up for their agreed appointments means other patients’ care might be delayed.”  Although the figures were down by 250,000 on the previous year they still have a significant impact on NHS services.

Hospitals are starting to employ a variety of methods in a bid to reduce the number of those who fail to turn up for appointments.   One project in Bedfordshire cut missed appointments by 30% simply by asking patients themselves to write down the appointment time and repeat it back to the receptionist.  Other health providers have started sending reminders to patients by text or e-mail whilst Newham University Hospital doctors now check up on their diabetes patients via Skype.

The problem of missed appointments also affects those in the private healthcare sector.  However with many services such as osteopathy and physiotherapy operating as via comparatively small practices, health practitioners can be torn between the options of treating patients or spending time in administration.  This means that inevitably patient appointment reminders are not sent, raising the chance of missed appointments.

Whilst some private health practices have a policy of charging patients for missed appointments these fees can prove hard to collect and may endanger the patient/practitioner relationship.   There is no point in trying to collect a missed appointment fee if that means missing several other fees in the future.

This is where a virtual receptionist service comes into its own.  Answering the phone, making appointments and sending reminders via text or email, the virtual receptionist service takes the appointment strain, leaving the clinician free to maximise patient time.  Interestingly a study in 2008 showed that those in the 20-24 age group are the most likely to miss appointments followed by the 25-29 and 15-19 age groups. The most tech savvy groups are therefore the worst offenders and a reminder system which takes advantage of text or e-mail could therefore have a significant effect.