PATIENTS who fail to turn up for their appointments cost local hospitals £1.3m over the last four months.

Since April, patients failed to show for 13,371 appointments at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and Calderdale Royal Hospital, Halifax – about 1 in 10 of booked appointments..

The number of missed appointments fell slightly from 39,947 in 2010/11 to 38,108 in 2011/12.

Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, which runs both hospitals, now texts reminders of appointments to patients.

But missed appointments still accounted for almost a tenth (9%) of the total number of appointments made in the last four months.

In Yorkshire last year, over 500,000 outpatient appointments were missed out of the 6.3m appointments made.

Health Minister Simon Burns has encouraged hospital trusts to use ‘innovative solutions’ to reduce the number of missed appointments.

Mr Burns said: “It is important that people realise that not turning up for their agreed appointments means other patients’ care might be delayed and doctors’ and nurses’ time could be wasted, costing the taxpayer money.

“Under the NHS Constitution we all have rights to treatment, such as being seen within 18 weeks.

“Patients often have genuine reasons to miss an appointment, but it can have a big impact on the care we can offer to other patients.

“It is important that the public understand we have responsibilities too, like not wasting precious NHS resources.”

Katharine Fletcher, manager of outpatient appointments for Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are continually looking at new ways to expand our reminder service to ensure the numbers of missed appointments continues to fall.

“The text service to mobiles is working but we are looking to expand the service and we are also considering sending email reminders.”

Patients can cancel their appointments on the free number: 0800 0158 222 (01484 355370 from a mobile).

Cancellations should be made at the earliest possible opportunity so the appointment can be re-allocated to another patient, the Trust has said.

Patients are encouraged to provide the Appointment Centre with a mobile contact number for reminder purposes.