Missed appointments have cost Blackpool NHS Trust £25 million since 2019

Freedom of Information requests submitted to NHS trusts across England and Wales discovered that 254,741 appointments were missed across 102 NHS trusts over the last five years.

The research, conducted by business communication specialist, Esendex, calculated the financial impact based on the NHS’s own data which shows that each missed appointment costs £160.

The data showed that an average of 52,700 appointments were missed across each trust in 2023 - creating an average annual cost of £8.4 million per trust or £1.9 million per year across the 229 trusts in total across the NHS.

Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust reported 157,704 missed appointments since 2019 - estimated to have cost the trust £25,232,640.

The data found that trusts in the North West fared slightly better compared to other regions, however with costs of £16 million per trust since 2019.

Commenting on the findings, Chris Gorman, Head of Professional Services at Esendex, said: “Missed healthcare appointments are hugely frustrating for everyone in healthcare - not least for organisations like the NHS which has to shoulder the financial and administrative burden of no-shows.

“While many healthcare providers rely on letters or emails to update patients about their appointments, these can easily be missed, lost or left unread, so it’s clear providers need to find new ways to reduce no-shows.

“With data showing that most people read a text message within the first three minutes of receiving it, SMS solutions have a huge potential to drive down the number of missed appointments across the NHS. Rich messaging also enables providers to support two-way conversations on devices most of us carry with us at all times, making it a convenient, cost-effective and reliable method of contact.”

To view Esendex’s research in full, visit: https://www.esendex.co.uk/blog/post/stemming-the-flow-counting-the-cost-of-missed-nhs-appointments/

For an interactive regional map: https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/pG4Fr/1/