Children’s Hearing Service launches text reminders
Blackpool Teaching Hospitals has launched a text reminder service for its Children’s Hearing Service in a bid to reduce missed appointments
On average one in five patients miss their appointments without informing the service in advance. Each missed appointment costs the NHS £160 per appointment but more importantly, it means that the slot cannot be offered to another child needing help.
Blackpool Teaching Hospitals already operates a reminder service for its outpatient appointments. It has been shown that sending reminders significantly reduces the number of missed appointments it is hoped this can be replicated for the Trust’s Children’s Community Services.
From Thursday 1 September 2022 text reminders will be sent to all Children’s Hearing Patients before being rolled out to other children’s community services; people will not be charged for receiving or replying to appointment reminders.
An initial reminder is sent out seven days prior to the appointment, and then a final reminder sent again 48 hours before the appointment. Families will have the option to rebook the appointment which will enable the service to re-use this appointment for another child.
Diane Booth, Head of Children’s Community Services, commented “We appreciate how busy people are and how easy it can be to forget an appointment or mislay an appointment card, this system will provide families with that reminder and also provide the facility to re-book the appointment, the service can then offer this slot to another child which in turn will help to reduce waiting lists”.