h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Way to go, Z!

So what next for young Z in the doctor training stakes?

Mucho in private prqactise?

Ahem, not for Z I think

*climbs under desk and waits for the explosion*

Anyone got any nice plans for the long weekend?

There has been much in the news in the past few days about how much money is being cost to the NHS because patients don't turn up for appointments. Can anyone explain to me why missed appointments cost the NHS? I was at the docs yesterday and a few people not turning up struck me as quite useful - unfortunately I was forced to book the last appointment in the morning clinic. I turned up 5 mins before my appointment time and then waited a further 45 minutes before I got to see anyone. If a few people had missed their appointments then there is a chance that the surgery would have run to time...

[GDZ- this has been a long month, I mean week, TGIF]

Thanks for all the congratultions. I think private healthcare is on my list of things I object to deeply, but it's a fairly long list so I'll have to check .

GD will be able to explain the missed appointments things better than me..

I think it's on a service planning level, to 'meet demand' you have to account for the number of appointments that needed for everyone to be seen on time. It costs x amount of money to see say 12 patients, therefore x/12 is budgeted for per patient.

If 1/3 of the patients don't turn up then it costs the same x amount of money to run the clinic, but only to see 9 patients, x/9. So the cost per patient has increased.

The doctors may well have spent the extra time providing a better service to the other patients, or catching up on their paperwork. But the cost per patient was still x/9 instead of x/12.

Well done, Z!

I am having a terrible headache, my blood pressure is too low and my eyesight has turned bad. It's autumn. I fail in everything. I am sorry.

*off to *

Well done Z! And a for Hati, as well as anyone else who feels they need one.

Congratulations, Z! Good grades!

Busy, busy... *stops to Hati, grab a cup of tea and a cinnamon bun, then runs off to her studio*

I was teasing like crazy Z. I know you wouldn't abandon the NHS unlike Senor Blair.

Quite ...

Incidentlyy I seem to be going to a Beer, Folk and Steam festival next weekend, which will be a new experience for me - and Chumawumba are playing http://www.chumba.com/

Looks good Z.
If Chumbawumba do some of the stuff off English Rebel Songs you'll be in for a treat
I was just listening to that CD the other day (the original, not last years redux version). Though English protest songs seem not to be on the radar much these days they certainly could write them when they wanted to!

Z, I somehow forgot to include this on my last post

Thanks for the explanation of the absent patients, but I still don't understand how they have *cost* the NHS anything. If it costs x to run a morning surgery, it will still cost x regardless of how many patients are treated won't it?

I suppose there may be practices where the GP sits around twiddling his/her thumbs when people don't show but in 30 years I have never seen it!

Gosh a whole LED of posts with my name on

It doesn't really cost the NHS anything as such, expect that most of the people who didn't turn up are going to need another appointment at a later date.

I've been in a couple of clinics where nearly all the patients didn't turn up, the problem was especially evident in psychiatry new patients clinics because the doctor was allocated an hour with each patient, so if one didn't turn up they were literally doing nothing.

Now the sensible way to deal with it is to look at *why* people don't turn up and see if changes to be made to make it easier for people to access treatment.

Well done Z,

Am I right in thinking that some practices fine folk who don't turn up, or was that a non NHS thing, like the dentist?

It might be more cost effective to call the day before, and remind patients they have an appointment, I don't know. It works for my dentists (although that may affect confidentiality if messages are left?)

Hmm Beer I am off to a beer festival where I get to dress up in Victorian costume next weekend just got to fit it all in the little car with the camping gear ;o)

oh yes, doesn't look like I shall get up that tower soon

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/5030044.shtml

They have had to close it on the day it reopened!

Sounds fun Toc.

I think that's just a Non NHS thing, where it's more if you don't turn up then you still have to pay, the same that you would anyway.

There's talk of bringing it in then NHS but hopefully it will be scrapped.

Oh no Toc not again. This is becoming the Glasgow achitechural joke that is taking on the Scotish Parliament in terms of disaters.

I haven't heard that Chumbawumba album in ages. It was rather good too.
I like the idea of a Beer, Folk and Steam festival, provided you don't get them confused.