Appointment no shows cost local HSE three million euro
The city's two public hospitals have launched a campaign to reduce the numbers who fail to attend their outpatient appointments.
It comes as figures compiled by the HSE show that it cost more than three million euro in lost time last year preparing for appointments for patients who did not turn up.
Tony Canavan, Chief Operating Officer of the Galway and Roscommon University Hospital Group says one of our main priorities is to radically reduce the length of time that patients wait for an outpatient appointment.
This process began at the end of last year by carrying out an extensive validation exercise which is now complete.
Over 327 thousand appointments were arranged by the group last yet and only 289 thousand patients turned up.
Over 38 thousand patients in total did not attend their appointments.
Last year it cost over three million euro in lost time preparing for appointments for patients who did not turn up.