Dudley patients miss 2,500 appointments every month

More than 2,500 appointments are missed by patients at Dudley's hospitals every month, new figures reveal.

A new text reminder service has been launched to help reduce the number of missed out-patient appointments and keep waiting times down for other patients.

Bosses at Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley, the Guest Outpatient Centre in Dudley and Corbett Outpatient Centre in Stourbridge said 2,300 hours of clinic time was lost due to patients not attending appointments in April, May and June this year. It has previously said the average cost of a missed appointment was £80. It is estimated that more than 2,500 sessions are being missed every month.

The text reminders will contain the date and time of the appointment as well as the location and name of the clinician the patient is due to see.

The new free service has been introduced in all outpatient clinics and is available to all patients.

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Paul Assinder, director of finance and information, said the equivalent of 1,000 working days is lost each year due to patients not attending appointments.

He said there would be several benefits as a result of the new reminder service.

"We hope to gain over 9,000 hours of clinic time. This extra time will help us to see more patients and will also help keep waiting for an appointment to a minimum.

"When a patient doesn't attend on the day, it's too late to offer their slot to somebody else.

"If you can't attend your appointment, it's really important that you let us know so we can reschedule for another time and offer your appointment to another patient.

"We really hope that this new service will help to improve the service we offer and allow us to provide all our patients with timely, high quality care."

Reducing missed appointments is one of the ways the hospital trust is looking to save money.

It is currently carrying out a widespread review of non-clinical posts as it looks to save £12 million.

Bosses are reviewing the positions of temporary staff, those on fixed-term contracts, and bank and agency workers.

They are also looking at reducing overtime and recruitment to non-clinical vacancies to claw back costs.

Chief executive Paula Clark had said the review would cover posts 'furthest away from frontline patient care'.

It's not yet known how many jobs could be at risk.

A 'mutually agreed resignation scheme' has been launched which will continue throughout September, which means workers can leave their posts in return for a set severance payment.