More than 500 people skipped appointments at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary last week without bothering to cancel, new figures show.
NHS Grampian said 8,111 people attended appointments at the hospital last week but 503 people expected did not show up or call to cancel. That was 6% of all appointments at ARI.
At Dr Gray’s Hospital in Elgin, there were 106 no-shows who did not cancel – 6% of all appointments – while at Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital, the figure was 63 – 8%.
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An NHS Grampian spokesman said: “Appointments left uncancelled result in wasted NHS resources, whether that is staff time, unfilled clinical appointments and increased financial.
“Missed inpatient appointments can mean, for example, valuable theatre time is lost.
“Every uncancelled appointment results in another patient not being seen.”