Monday blues explain why patients miss hospital and GP appointments

Significant health and financial savings could be achieved by changing when hospital outpatient and GP appointments are scheduled, say researchers from the University of Glasgow's School of Psychology. Approximately 12 per cent of all outpatient appointments at UK hospitals are not kept, costing the health system an estimated £600 million a year. Consequently even a small reduction in the percentage of missed appointments could save the NHS significant sums, write psychologists Rob Jenkins and David Ellis in the online journal PLoS One. "If you could cut non-attendance by just a tenth - from 12 per cent to 10.8 per cent, you could save the NHS £60 million a year," says Jenkins. "It would also improve patients' health and reduce the risk of illness." The researchers studied two sets of data. First they analysed the attendance records for 4,538,294 outpatient hospital appointments across Scotland between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2010. Next they examined the attendance records for 10,895 appointments at a single GP clinic in Glasgow.