Missed outpatient appointments ‘wasting valuable resources’ - Wilson

The call comes after the Health Minister revealed that the number of new and review outpatient appointments in the Northern Trust which the patient did not attend, and did not inform the hospital of their intention not to attend, has risen from 11,704 in 2017/18 to 12,222 in 2018/19.

The DUP MP said: “These are startling statistics. In 2018/19, 12,222 appointments have been lost in the Northern Trust because of people failing to turn up and failing to notify the hospital they would not attend. That represents around 33 appointments per day where our healthcare workers are not being fully utilised. Time and resources are being wasted.

"The last few months has highlighted just how invaluable our health service is. The pressures on the system posed by COVID-19 have been withstood heroically, but now we look to contain COVID-19 while also re-opening our health service.

"We need to tackle waiting lists and restart much needed treatments across the system. If we are to do that as efficiently and as effectively as possible, we need to public to respect our health service and medical staff, by attending appointments or having the courtesy to get in touch if attendance is not possible. Others can then take that place and the backlog of treatments worked through more quickly.

"We cannot continue with this wasting of time and invaluable resources. I really do urge the public to play their part in the health services re-start. If this increasing trend continues, other penalties will have to be explored for repeat offenders.”