Another day, another negative story about the NHS, broadcast on breakfast radio, at just the correct time to put my back up before even stepping into the surgery. Yesterday was about unacceptable waiting times in A&E, the day before about how we are earning too much money, and today it’s all about the patients who failed to show up for their appointments — the much maligned DNAs.
It seems that someone who isn’t busy seeing patients has found the time to count the number of appointments ‘wasted’ because of patients not turning up. The quoted figures came from West Fife where there were 252 DNAs in one week.1 The report in question focused on the costs of these missed and cancelled appointments, and implored the public to attend the appointments they had made in order to prevent increased costs to the NHS. Other studies suggest that DNAs account for 10 million lost appointments a year.2 Such figures are bound to raise eyebrows among managerial …
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