16% of patients do not keep appointments

ALMOST 16 per cent of patients did not attend for appointments given to them at the State’s public hospitals in January, according to new figures released by the Health Service Executive (HSE). And at two hospitals, the failed attendance was almost 30 per cent.

In its monthly performance report, published yesterday, the HSE said it continued to be concerned by the numbers of patients who do not attend for appointments.

Of the over 207,000 outpatient appointments given for the month of January, almost 33,000 did not go ahead because of the non-attendance of patients and almost a third of these were first-time appointments.

Kilcreene Orthopaedic Hospital in Kilkenny had the highest total rate of did-not-attends, with almost 29 per cent, while the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital in Dublin was 0.2 per cent below that.

The Regional Orthopaedic Hospital in Limerick had the lowest failed attendance rate at 7 per cent.

The report also showed that while the numbers of people covered by medical cards and GP visit cards in January, at 1.7 million, was greater than the numbers in January 2011, discretionary card numbers were down.

Since last July, the allocation of medical and GP cards has been centralised. The process had resulted in delays for applicants.

Discretionary medical and GP cards are issued to individuals who are not entitled to the cards on the basis of low income, but who may experience undue financial hardship if they have to pay their own medical bills.

These may include individuals with chronic medical conditions or those who are terminally ill.

In January 2012, just over 73,000 people had discretionary medical cards, down 9 per cent on the same time last year. And just over 16,000 had discretionary GP visit cards, also down 9 per cent on January 2011.

Data on the numbers of hospital bed closures was also included in the report, with 805 recorded nationally to the week ending February 5th, including eight day care beds.

The figures were the first released since early 2011, when the HSE ceased publication pending the introduction of uniform criteria for what constituted a “closed bed”, the report said.