Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Text messaging for reminding patients of upcoming appointments is already quite widely used across the health system and was, as the Deputy correctly point out, introduced as a mechanism to try and reduce missed appointments (DNA's / Did Not Attends). Deployment of text reminders has typically been driven by individual hospitals in areas where they felt it had the greatest potential. The HSE has also deployed a solution from Swiftqueue whereby people can book (within certain parameters) appointment dates and times that they know will work for them - again in an effort to modernise the health system and reduce the likelihood of a missed appointment. The HSE can provide more detail on what sites have deployed text reminders.