YOUR recent feature (SA, May 12) about missed hospital appointments is a little misleading.
Firstly the cost' is somewhat theoretical. Clinics are often over-booked, either deliberately or through urgent cases being squeezed in. How many readers have found that the doctor had been waiting for them? Not many I suspect. Yes, empty spaces waste professional time and money but are there really very many of these?
Secondly, in my experience as a GP, a frequent cause of no shows' is that the patient never received the appointment in the first place. The recently introduced system whereby the patient is invited to ring and make an appointment directly has helped a lot, but still almost every week I've been seeing people who hotly deny ever having received their invitation.
Granted, many do forget, and that's inexcusable, but clearly the postal system as highlighted in other features leaves much to be desired, and the costs are more theoretical than real.
DR C N BARRY Swindon
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