One in five patients accidentally miss their hospital appointment simply because they forget when it is.
We appreciate how busy people are and how easy it can be to forget an appointment or mislay an appointment card; however, patients not attending their appointments have a negative impact on the service the Trust provides leading to longer waiting lists.
Each missed appointment costs the hospital money in terms of the time the medical staff waste, but more importantly, it means that the slot cannot be offered to another patient.
It has been shown that sending appointment reminders significantly reduces the number of missed appointments; therefore, where appropriate the Trust will send a text to patients reminding them of their outpatient appointments.
Appointment Text Reminder Service – Important Information
• It is a FREE service; you will not be charged for receiving or replying to appointment reminders
• If you have given your mobile number to any NHS Healthcare provider, we will accept this as implied consent that you agree for the Trust to use this number to contact you regarding your hospital appointments
• Patients do have the option of opting out of the text reminder service, either by notifying a member of the clinic’s reception team or replying ‘STOP’ upon receipt of a text reminder. Please note, by opting out you will not receive reminders for any hospital appointments
• An initial reminder is sent out seven days prior to the appointment, and then a final reminder sent again 48 hours before the appointment
• If you need to re-book an appointment, please respond ‘REBOOK’ and a call handler will ring you to agree with you a convenient date and time
• Please note: you will be unable to rebook your appointment by replying to the 48 hour reminder text. You will need to contact the hospital directly to book another appointment. You may also experience a longer wait on rescheduled appointments.
• By notifying the Trust of a rebooking we are able to re-use the appointment slot that would otherwise have been wasted, which in turn will reduce patient waiting times
• If you have recently changed any of your contact details please ensure that you notify your GP AND notify us as per the instructions below.
If you are unsure if a text message is genuine and wish to check your appointment, please contact your service contact your appointments contact.