A single rose is delivered to the Specialist Outpatients Department at Mackay Base Hospital every month; a thank-you from a cancer survivor.
The former patient has been making the floral tribute for the past year and a half as her way of reminding staff she has not forgotten the difference their care has made.
Sadly not every patient is as appreciative with an average of 60 people a day not turning up for their specialist doctor appointments.
Chief Executive Helen Chalmers encouraged the community to keep or cancel their appointments.
“Missed appointments make other people wait longer for specialist care,” Ms Chalmers said.
“We understand there are good reasons people can’t attend appointment so I encourage people to call the hospital and we can offer your appointment to another patient,” she said.
New data shows 14,451 appointments were missed in 2015-16, only a slight improvement from 14,518 in 2014-15.
Of the missed appointments last year 5103 were new appointments and 9348 were review appointments.
“There are only a certain number of appointments available for each specialist, so to have an opportunity wasted is not fair to other people on the waiting list,” she said.
In 2015-16 an average 1204 appointments were lost per month due to people failing to attend – or 8.46% of all appointments offered were lost.
People who miss appointments now risk being removed from the waiting list.
Ms Chalmers said the hospital endeavoured to follow up with people who missed their appointments in case they had a valid reason.
“If we do not get a response and they still want the appointment this will mean they need to see their GP for new referral and then take their place on the waiting list again,” she said.
“Our message to people is ‘Keep it or cancel it. Don’t forget it’. Missed appointments affect you because you may not get the care you need.”
The most affected specialties in 2015-16 were:
• General Surgery – average of 17.2% or 171 appointments a month
• Orthopaedics General – average of 12% or 88 appointments a month
• Gynaecology – average of 17.7% or 68 appointments a month
• Paediatric Medicine – average of 15.5% or 51 appointments a month.
Reasons people fail to attend include:
• patients change their address and don’t let the hospital know
• patients no longer need the appointment and don’t let the hospital know
• patients forget or cannot attend their appointment.
The hospital sends SMS messages and letters in a bid to remind people about appointments.
Mackay Base Hospital is working hard to reduce the number of people waiting longer than the recommended time to see a specialist.
“Our waiting times are the best they have ever been and we reached the end of 2015-16 with just 193 patients waiting longer than the recommended time.
“We are always working to reduce this and improve our service, and appeal to the community to play their role by attending or cancelling their appointments.”
More Information
Danielle Jesser, Media and Communications Manager
mhhs-comms@health.qld.gov.au
Phone 0417 756 221
