Nearly half a million hospital outpatient appointments were missed last year, while more than 125,000 appointments were unattended in the first three months of this year. Nearly one-fifth of patients failed to turn up for outpatient appointments at Mayo University Hospital last year, while Limerick University Hospital had the best record, with just seven per cent no-shows. Nearly 1,300 people a day fail to attend outpatient appointments nationally, which creates major issues for the HSE, hospitals and consultants as they struggle to cut waiting lists. Large numbers missed genito-urinary medicine appointments, related to the treatment and prevention of sexually transmitted infections (19.7 per cent), and psychiatry appointments (18 per cent). A HSE spokeswoman said patients were asked to let their hospital know as soon as possible if they could not attend scheduled appointments so that other patients could be offered the appointments.

Source: The Irish Times October 30, 2018 01:52 UTC