Health Minister Michael McGimpsey has urged all patients to attend their outpatient appointments.

More than one in ten patients fail to attend their appointment. The annual cost of patients failing to attend their outpatient appointment is estimated to be some £8.5million.

The Health Minister, Michael McGimpsey set out the measures already in place to address these issues.

These measures include: The introduction of more effective systems for booking outpatient appointments where patients are given a choice of dates and times of available clinics; A requirement for all clinical staff (doctors and nurses) to give at least six weeks notice of planned annual leave or study leave; A requirement for Trusts to set targets to reduce rates of non-attendance and produce an annual report on performance; The removal of patients from waiting lists when they do not attend.

The Minister said: "When patients cancel at short notice, or worse fail to attend without giving any notice, their slot is wasted and they deprive someone else of being seen. The numbers of patients failing to turn up for their appointment has fallen from 11.4% to 10.6% in the last year. This is a welcome reduction and is comparable with the rest of the UK but it is still too high.

"I understand that there will be occasions when doctors become sick and have to cancel clinics. This is a particular issues at smaller hospitals where it is more difficult or sometimes impossible to provide cover. So while it will never be possible to totally eliminate cancelled clinics, I am determined to reduce such cancellations to an absolute minimum."

Turning to the new outpatient appointment booking arrangements, the minister said that in the past patients were written to many months in advance with a fixed date for their appointment.

He continued: "Under the old arrangements there was no consideration for the convenience for patients; instead they were offered a date that suited the hospital.

"As a result they often needed to cancel their appointment because it was inconvenient for them. New, patient- focussed partial booking systems mean that patients are now contacted six weeks in advance and offered a choice of dates and times to suit them.

"However, any patient who has had an opportunity to agree the date of their appointment and subsequently fails to turn up will be removed from the waiting list. As well as being a more efficient process, this system is much more responsive to patients."