Belfast Trust appointment reminder service update

A free appointment reminder/confirmation service has been introduced to combat 50,000 hospital appointment slots being wasted.

The Belfast Trust makes over 500,000 new and review outpatient appointments per year across its acute hospital sites. In 2012 – 2013 the percentage of patients who did not attend (DNA) for their appointment was 8.0% for new patients and 12.6% for review patients.

This resulted in over 50,000 appointments slots being wasted, which could have been filled by patients who are on waiting lists for appointments.

In order to reduce the number of missed appointments, a free appointment reminder/confirmation service has been introduced. Reminders are made using an automated telephone call or text message.

By providing reminders to patients of forthcoming appointments, the Trust hope to reduce the number of missed appointments and allow patients to re-schedule to a convenient time.

To date over 100,000 appointment reminder messages have been sent to patients. 22 specialties are now live, with a further 20 specialties to be implemented by the end of January 2014.