To ask the Minister of Health, pursuant to AQW 18097/17-22, to detail the 'did not attend' appointments for the last three years, broken down by hospital department.

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)’.

This data is available by hospital site in the most recent publication which 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.

Data for 2020/21 is not available by hospital site.