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WQ.60/2023
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES BY DEPUTY M.B. ANDREWS OF ST. HELIER NORTH
QUESTION SUBMITTED ON MONDAY 20th FEBRUARY 2023
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON MONDAY 27th FEBRUARY 2023
Question
“Will the Minister state the total number of medical appointments offered by her Department for the period 2018 to date, and advise what percentage of those appointments have been cancelled?”
Answer
The table below shows the total Outpatient Clinic appointments offered and the percentage of these that were cancelled each year between 1 January 2018 and 31 January 2023. Appointments that were rescheduled are also categorised as cancelled. The percentage of appointments cancelled shown below have been further categorised by care group.
The ‘Other’ Care Group comprises of Pre-Assessment Clinic appointments (where a patient is contacted by a nurse prior to an inpatient or day case admission) and Phlebotomy appointments.
This answer is an update to previously asked Written Questions: WQ.312/2022 and WQ.15/2023. Please note that small variation in numbers is as expected – for example there are data quality validations and corrections reflected in the latest data.
Notes:
- “Medical appointments” has been interpreted as all General & Acute outpatient medical appointments. As such, the data presented includes Jersey General Hospital and Overdale Hospital activity as well as clinics in other locations, such as Le Bas or Springfield.
- An appointment is counted as cancelled:
- when the Appointment Status in TrakCare (the electronic system that captures appointment slots) has been set to 'Cancelled' or
- if the status has been set to 'Not Attended', this can be further categorised by reason, which can be
- ‘Appointment cancelled by service’. Reasons include instances where clinics are cancelled and rebooked in an alternative location or time, which may be on the same day. It is currently not possible to report on these separately.
- ‘Appointment cancelled by patient’. Reasons include:
- Appointment cancelled by or on behalf of the patient
- Appointment no longer required
- Appointment no longer required (Pat)
- Appt cancellation informed by 3rd party
- Appt cancelled by patient - awaiting patient contact
- Away from Island/Education/Military/Travel
- Earlier appointment requested
- GP instructions
- Later appointment requested
- Leaving island
- Patient transferred to private care
- Transferred appointments, are not counted. A transferred appointment occurs when the patient will see a different clinician (to whom the appointment has been ‘transferred’), but the appointment date and time remains exactly the same.
- When HCS or the patient cancel the appointment, a new appointment will be given at the next available slot in relation to the urgency of the patient’s referral.
- HCS encourages all patients to inform the specialty service with as much notice as possible to ensure the slot can be re-allocated to someone else on the waiting list. If a patient requires a different date or time, they can find information on how to inform HCS in their appointment letter. Work is ongoing to ensure patients are given a new appointment slot with a letter being sent to the patient with the new details.
Medical Appointments Cancelled (as per above definitions) by year, Health & Community Services
|
Year |
Total Appt Cancelled |
Total Appt Offered |
Percentage Cancelled |
|
2018 |
26104 |
235232 |
11.1% |
|
2019 |
26471 |
235306 |
11.2% |
|
2020 |
30664 |
219413 |
14.0% |
|
2021 |
29381 |
251642 |
11.7% |
|
2022 |
37365 |
275113 |
13.6% |
|
2023 to 31 Jan |
3303 |
24610 |
13.4% |
|
Total |
153288 |
1241316 |
12.3% |
Data Source: Hospital Patient Administration System (TrakCare, Outpatient Report BKG1A).
Medical Appointments Cancelled (as per above definitions) by Care Group and year, Health & Community Services
|
Year |
Dental |
Medical Services |
Surgical Services |
Therapies |
Women and Children Services |
Other |
|
2018 |
9.1% |
11.6% |
9.5% |
15.1% |
11.3% |
0.2% |
|
2019 |
8.3% |
11.4% |
9.5% |
16.5% |
11.4% |
3.7% |
|
2020 |
28.4% |
13.7% |
12.9% |
17.3% |
12.4% |
4.0% |
|
2021 |
10.8% |
11.6% |
10.0% |
14.3% |
16.0% |
8.2% |
|
2022 |
10.1% |
13.6% |
10.7% |
17.4% |
17.1% |
11.4% |
|
2023 |
7.7% |
17.8% |
10.5% |
14.5% |
15.6% |
9.3% |
|
Total |
12.7% |
12.5% |
10.5% |
16.2% |
13.9% |
8.0% |
Data Source: Hospital Patient Administration System (TrakCare, Outpatient Report BKG1A).