More than 600 people failed to show up at hospital appointments in the north-east last week – and did not call to cancel.
NHS Grampian said the patients were to attend appointments at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital (RACH) or Dr Gray’s Hospital in Elgin and were no-shows.
Of those, 473 were at ARI, 69 were at Dr Gray’s and 59 were at RACH.
An NHS Grampian spokesman said: “Every uncancelled appointment, whether for inpatients or outpatients, results in another patient not being seen.
“Missed inpatient appointments can mean, for example, that valuable theatre time is lost.”
ARI missed the UK-wide target of treating or discharging 95% of patients within four hours of arrival at A&E – the figure was 89.4%.
However, the figure at Dr Gray’s was 96.4% and the figure at RACH was 99.7%.