To ask the Minister of Health to detail any arrangements in place to ensure that patients who rely solely on postal communication are not disadvantaged by delays in appointment notifications.

There is currently no regionally agreed method for recording whether missed appointments are a result of delayed or undelivered postal communications. Consequently, data is not available on the number of patients who may have missed an appointment for this reason.

My Department has not undertaken an assessment of the postal service currently used by Health and Social Care (HSC) Trusts and no assessment has been made on the use of Royal Mail’s economy postal services. HSC Trusts manage postal delivery performance through established contractual and supplier arrangements and can raise concerns regarding delays in patient correspondence directly with providers.

The Integrated Elective Access Protocol (IEAP) sets out good practice for managing the elective care pathway and waiting lists. It includes specific provisions for time-critical referrals, such as Two-Week Wait (red flag/suspect cancer) cases, and for services involving children or adults at risk. In such circumstances, local agreements with clinicians are in place to ensure that where an appointment is missed, a second appointment is always offered.

In addition, patients who are unable to attend their appointment due to unforeseen or exceptional circumstances, including postal delivery delays, have a four-week period in which to contact their HSC Trust to be reinstated on the waiting list from the original appointment date. This helps ensure that patients are not disadvantaged due to missed notifications.

Most outpatient services operate a partial booking system, where patients agree their appointment date and time by telephone in advance and this is then confirmed in writing, typically with at least three weeks’ notice. This approach gives patients greater control over their appointments and reduces reliance on postal notifications alone.

To further mitigate the impact of any potential postal delays, and help improve alternative methods of patient communication, my Department has provided recurrent funding to HSC Trusts to support a dual notification system, with text message reminders issued alongside appointment letters across most services. This aims to provide a timely and convenient method of communication, especially when postal services may be delayed, helping to reduce the number of ‘Did Not Attend’ (DNAs) by prompting attendance and giving patients the opportunity to cancel or reschedule their appointments, ensuring valuable appointment slots can be offered to other patients.

Furthermore, the My Care app provides patients and service users with secure access to a subset of their Health and Social Care record, including appointment details, clinic letters, medication details and some test results. HSC Trusts are actively encouraging patients and service users to sign up for the My Care app.