To ask the Minister of Health to detail the number of missed medical appointments in each of the past three years, broken down by Health and Social Care Trust.

Data relating to outpatient activity, including the number of appointments patients missed/did not attend (DNA), are published annually by financial year. The number of missed outpatient appointments, known as DNAs (Did Not Attend) is defined as ‘the number of patients who did not attend, and failed to give advance warning to the hospital, for an outpatient appointment. This includes patients who cancelled their outpatient appointment on the same day on which the appointment was scheduled. These should not be confused with those who could not attend and who did warn the hospital in advance (before the day on which the appointment was scheduled)’.

The most recent publication was released in August 2020 and can be found at the following link:

https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/publications/hospital-statistics-outpatient-activity-statistics-201920.

Table 1 provides a breakdown of missed outpatient appointments in the past three years by HSC Trust.

Table 1 Number of missed outpatient appointments in each of the past three years, broken down by Health and Social Care Trust

*Data is provisional. Data for January to March 2021 is not available yet.