Paying for missed doctors' appointments.

[Hope]

As folk may have heard, Jeremy Hunt (Health Secretary) has suggested that those who miss doctors' appointments might be asked to pay for that time slot.  If that does happen, do folk think that people will start to charge their doctor's surgery for appointments/meetings they have missed as a result of delays at the surgery.

Could this suggestion come back and bite Mr Hunt on the derriere?

[Shaker]

Medical services are horrendously overstretched and something does need to be done about the colossal number of missed appointments. Some sort of deposit/fine system seems reasonable at first sight but can't distinguish between people who genuinely forget an appointment and are sorry for having done so and those who just can't be arsed to turn up - penalising the former group is unfair.

It doesn't help that usually appointments are months, sometimes several months or even many months away and thus are easy to forget. One of my local hospitals sends out a couple of reminders by SMS, one a few days beforehand and the other the day before, but I doubt if all hospitals and surgeries do this and it's little use to those without a phone and/or the very elderly (often one and the same)  anyway.

[floo]

I think it is reasonable to be charged if you haven't informed the surgery/hospital clinic you are unable to attend, unless you have a very good reason for not being able to let them know.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Medical services are horrendously overstretched and something does need to be done about the colossal number of missed appointments. Some sort of deposit/fine system seems reasonable at first sight but can't distinguish between people who genuinely forget an appointment and are sorry for having done so and those who just can't be arsed to turn up - penalising the former group is unfair.

It doesn't help that usually appointments are months, sometimes several months or even many months away and thus are easy to forget. One of my local hospitals sends out a couple of reminders by SMS, one a few days beforehand and the other the day before, but I doubt if all hospitals and surgeries do this and it's little use to those without a phone and/or the very elderly (often one and the same)  anyway.

Perhaps they should have a voluntary collecting tin chained of course to stop people stealing it.

[Udayana]

As folk may have heard, Jeremy Hunt (Health Secretary) has suggested that those who miss doctors' appointments might be asked to pay for that time slot.  If that does happen, do folk think that people will start to charge their doctor's surgery for appointments/meetings they have missed as a result of delays at the surgery.

Could this suggestion come back and bite Mr Hunt on the derriere?

Er... I thought he suggested they should NOT be charged - the complete opposite. They may be told what the effectives cost of the missed appointment turned out to be.

That might help, though I have never missed an appontment (excepting the cases where a hospital sent me the information only after the date had passed) ... have never understood why it costs the NHS .. surely it means less work and they can get on with treating the people who have been waiting for ages past their appointment time?

[Hope]

Er... I thought he suggested they should NOT be charged - the complete opposite. They may be told what the effectives cost of the missed appointment turned out to be.

That might help, though I have never missed an appontment (excepting the cases where a hospital sent me the information only after the date had passed) ... have never understood why it costs the NHS .. surely it means less work and they can get on with treating the people who have been waiting for ages past their appointment time?

No, being informed of the cost to the NHS is already set to come in, sometime in the autumn, I believe.  He accepted that charging people could be problematic practically, but he didn't rule it out (he was 'sympathetic to the idea', is how the BBC describes his view -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33375976)

[Jack Knave]

I think it is reasonable to be charged if you haven't informed the surgery/hospital clinic you are unable to attend, unless you have a very good reason for not being able to let them know.

Let them know by how soon? A day before? What would you see as being a fair cut point before they were changed?

[Jack Knave]

What about three strikes, or warnings, and then you start to get charged?

[L.A.]

I would say that the reason there are so many 'missed' appointments is that most appointments are just 'box ticking' exercises requested by the surgery itself. No one is going to miss an appointment that they need, but when you are told that you must come for routine tests in three or four weeks its not surprising that some people forget.

The irony is that if you actually need to get an urgent appointment you can't get one which is the reason A&E is overloaded.

[Aruntraveller]

Administration of any charging for this would be a complete nightmare.

There would be exemptions for those on benefits, the elderly, those with existing conditions like Alzheimers etc.

That is without setting up the accounting system to deal with this.

It is a lunatics idea. 

No surprise there then for the health secretary with an incorrect consonant at the beginning of his surname.

[BashfulAnthony]

Administration of any charging for this would be a complete nightmare.

There would be exemptions for those on benefits, the elderly, those with existing conditions like Alzheimers etc.

That is without setting up the accounting system to deal with this.

It is a lunatics idea. 

No surprise there then for the health secretary with an incorrect consonant at the beginning of his surname.

What about the accumulated hours patients have to wait beyond their appointment times?  How about some reparation for that lost time, and maybe the possible loss incurred?

[Aruntraveller]

Administration of any charging for this would be a complete nightmare.

There would be exemptions for those on benefits, the elderly, those with existing conditions like Alzheimers etc.

That is without setting up the accounting system to deal with this.

It is a lunatics idea. 

No surprise there then for the health secretary with an incorrect consonant at the beginning of his surname.

What about the accumulated hours patients have to wait beyond their appointment times?  How about some reparation for that lost time, and maybe the possible loss incurred?

Well exactly. That is the other side of the coin.

[cyberman]

I think it is reasonable to be charged if you haven't informed the surgery/hospital clinic you are unable to attend, unless you have a very good reason for not being able to let them know.

Let them know by how soon? A day before? What would you see as being a fair cut point before they were changed?

Also, who would determine what is a "very good reason"?

[Jack Knave]

I think it is reasonable to be charged if you haven't informed the surgery/hospital clinic you are unable to attend, unless you have a very good reason for not being able to let them know.

Let them know by how soon? A day before? What would you see as being a fair cut point before they were changed?

Also, who would determine what is a "very good reason"?

I gather a lot of missed appointments are for check ups and tests which are often booked for many weeks into the future and people forget them because they aren't activated into action as when they are when they feeling ill.

So I would have thought some texting or electronic reminder would be the key here...?

[L.A.]

I think it is reasonable to be charged if you haven't informed the surgery/hospital clinic you are unable to attend, unless you have a very good reason for not being able to let them know.

Let them know by how soon? A day before? What would you see as being a fair cut point before they were changed?

Also, who would determine what is a "very good reason"?

I gather a lot of missed appointments are for check ups and tests which are often booked for many weeks into the future and people forget them because they aren't activated into action as when they are when they feeling ill.

So I would have thought some texting or electronic reminder would be the key here...?

I think this is fairly common practice, I always get a text reminder.

[Jack Knave]

I think it is reasonable to be charged if you haven't informed the surgery/hospital clinic you are unable to attend, unless you have a very good reason for not being able to let them know.

Let them know by how soon? A day before? What would you see as being a fair cut point before they were changed?

Also, who would determine what is a "very good reason"?

I gather a lot of missed appointments are for check ups and tests which are often booked for many weeks into the future and people forget them because they aren't activated into action as when they are when they feeling ill.

So I would have thought some texting or electronic reminder would be the key here...?

I think this is fairly common practice, I always get a text reminder.

So why are they being missed then? If someone is ill they aren't going to not bother going?

[L.A.]

I think it is reasonable to be charged if you haven't informed the surgery/hospital clinic you are unable to attend, unless you have a very good reason for not being able to let them know.

Let them know by how soon? A day before? What would you see as being a fair cut point before they were changed?

Also, who would determine what is a "very good reason"?

I gather a lot of missed appointments are for check ups and tests which are often booked for many weeks into the future and people forget them because they aren't activated into action as when they are when they feeling ill.

So I would have thought some texting or electronic reminder would be the key here...?

I think this is fairly common practice, I always get a text reminder.

So why are they being missed then? If someone is ill they aren't going to not bother going?

I suspect it's mainly the routine ones that are being missed, presumably because not all surgeries do send texts and/or not all patients give mobile numbers.

[jeremyp]

If that does happen, do folk think that people will start to charge their doctor's surgery for appointments/meetings they have missed as a result of delays at the surgery.

Somebody I know "missed" an appointment because the doctor decided to fuck off home early, which I think is pretty unprofessional.  Financial compensation for the lost time and expenses (to get to and from the surgery) would certainly be appropriate in such cases.

[Sassy]

As folk may have heard, Jeremy Hunt (Health Secretary) has suggested that those who miss doctors' appointments might be asked to pay for that time slot.  If that does happen, do folk think that people will start to charge their doctor's surgery for appointments/meetings they have missed as a result of delays at the surgery.

Could this suggestion come back and bite Mr Hunt on the derriere?

They should pay the patient when the doctor runs over time if that is the case.
A few weeks aoo I had a doctors appointment and 90 minutes after my appointment time I was still waiting. I had to leave as I had my daughter returning home from the day centre and my son to collect from college.

I don't mind running over by 30 minutes to an hour but not 90 minutes. What annoyed me most was the message board was showing the doctor to be on time.......
Needless to say I missed that appointment because the doctor could not keep it., So if patients are to be compensated then fine... If not then no...