Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. As I know that he has come from a meeting of the Joint Committee on Health, I will not delay him. This matter was touched on at the committee meeting. It is about people who have appointments to attend hospital outpatient clinics. The figure given at the committee meeting was that 479,000 people had not kept their appointments, but that figure does not necessarily refer to 479,000 different people. Some people might have failed to turn up for a number of appointments. If one divides 479,000 by 52, it comes to approximately 9,211 per week. If one divides that figure by five, it comes to 1,842 a day. What initiatives can be taken to help to reduce this level of non-attendance?

The reason I have tabled this matter is that I was speaking to some hospital staff during the Christmas period and one or two of them advised me that the level of attendance at their clinics was as low as 50%. That results in a huge waste of staff time and resources. Staff could have been doing a lot more or made appointments for others on the waiting list. Has the idea of introducing a text messaging service across the board been considered? Another idea that could be considered is that, rather than have 50 people turn up at 9 a.m., 25 might be given appointments at 9 a.m. and 25 at 10 a.m. What has been looked at in that regard to make the system more efficient, reduce the level of waste and avoid using up the valuable time of the front-line doctors and nurses who are running the clinics?