‘Very high’ Do Not Attend rates caused by IT failures, trust discovers

An acute trust has discovered an IT issue which appears to have led to ‘very high’ numbers of patients not turning up for their appointments.

Bedfordshire Hospitals Foundation Trust discovered appointment letters were being lost, and not sent to patients, during intermittent server failures, its board was told yesterday.

The trust’s “did not attend“ rate has been between 10% and 12% over the last year, compared to the national average of 7%, according to its board papers.

The issue relates to patients with appointments booked at Luton and Dunstable Hospital. It is not yet clear how many patients were affected.

The trust is now planning to ensure every patient with an appointment booked this year receives a new appointment letter, and an apology if they did not previously receive one.

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Source: HSJ, 2 February 2023