AN AUDIT OF THE FACTORS INVOLVED IN NEW PATIENT NON-ATTENDANCE IN A DERMATOLOGY OUTPATIENT DEPARTMENT

Non-attendance at out-patient clinics, although common, has received r elatively little attention. A prospective study was undertaken to asse ss the extent of the problem of non-attendances of newly referred derm atological patients in a single dermatological out-patient clinic over a 12-month period. The overall non-attendance rate was found to be 19 %. There were no apparent significant differences between the groups o f attending and non-attending patients when compared statistically. A survey of those patients who failed to attend suggested that inadequat e communication between the hospital and patients (17%) and patients f orgetting their appointment date (23%) may be factors that are amenabl e to administrative changes.