Almost 30 per cent of patients at a specialist clinic at NHS Tayside did not turn up for their appointment last month, costing the health board over £12,000.
Seventy-nine patients missed their appointment with the continence advisory treatment service in December.
This includes 14 patients in Perth and Kinross who were due to have an initial one-hour appointment with the clinic last month, but never showed up.
The continence clinic works to offer support and treatment for patients with incontinence, including promoting health to prevent incontinence, treating incontinence, and offering specialist interventions and referrals to other services.
The nurses at the service also carry out education and teaching of continence issues in the community.
In Perth, the continence clinic is based at Drumhar Health Centre, along with community clinics in Crieff, Blairgowrie and Kinross and specialist physiotherapists at Perth Royal Infirmary.
Throughout the month of December, 55 new patients were assessed by the health board’s continence clinic, and a further 68 had follow-up appointments.
Sixty-six patients had an annual review with the clinic in December.
However, 79 patients did not attend their appointment, with each missed appointment costing NHS Tayside £156.
A spokesperson for NHS Tayside is now urging anyone who is not able to attend their appointment at the continence clinic to phone in advance to cancel the appointment, allowing the appointment time to be given to someone else.
They said: “We would always urge people to get in contact with us as early as possible if they are unable to attend their appointment for any reason.
“This allows us to rearrange a more suitable date and time and to give the original appointment to someone else.
“This reduces the number of wasted appointments and means we can make the best use of NHS resources.”
The continence advisory treatment service also runs an advisory help line.
A total of 1006 calls were made to this line during the month of December.
Across the whole of NHS Tayside between Monday, December 30 and Sunday, January 5, 10.4 per cent of patients did not attend their outpatient appointment.
A total of 6915 patients were seen that week at NHS Tayside’s outpatient departments, but a further 803 patients did not turn up.
Each missed outpatient appointment costs the health board £151.
