YOUNG, high-earning professionals and people living on inner city council estates are among the worst wasters of doctors’ time, research shows.

Analysis of more than 50 million outpatients’ appointments, using the latest demographics software, found that more than 20 per cent of people in each category failed to turn up for booked hospital appointments.

No-shows lengthen waiting lists and cost the NHS hundreds of millions of pounds every year in wasted staff time and poor use of equipment.

The best patients are, broadly, elderly and well-off. People with second homes and those who live in places of great natural beauty top the list, along with “better-off older couples living in bungalows and houses with large gardens, conservative in values and tastes”.

Fewer than one in ten of these miss their appointments.

The research, carried out by Dr Foster Intelligence, uses a software system called Mosaic, which identifies different types of people using specific social economic classifications.

More than 5.7 million outpatient appointments were missed in England for 2004-05 – 11.3 per cent of all appointments — according to Department of Health figures. A recent survey by KPMG supported this finding. With each missed appointment costing an average of £67, the waste is more than £300 million.

More than 60 per cent of DNA (did not attend) cases are blamed on apathy, with most patients unable to offer a reasonable excuse.

Roger Taylor, the research director at Dr Foster, said that the data offered an important insight into unreliable patients who might be referred by GPs, previous consultants, physiotherapists and other health professionals. Further research is expected to look at the potential correlations between failures to attend and poor compliance with treatment regimes.

Mr Taylor said that older people tended to be more immediately concerned about their failing health and often had more free time — leading to better attendance. He said: “With the need to control deficits in the NHS so crucial at the moment, this sort of analysis can help to identify the ways in which resources are being wasted, and what hospitals can do to try and reduce this waste.”

Other system abusers identified by the analysis include childless couples and single people living in rented city-centre accommodation, and “cosmopolitan sophisticates” living in “extremely expensive housing”. At the more compliant end of the scale are members of the farming community living in sparsely populated areas and younger professionals who have moved to suburban communities.

A survey conducted by doctors at one hospital found that a quarter of outpatients questioned about their absence gave no excuse and 30 per cent said that they had forgotten about the appointment; 8 per cent said that they were feeling better and had not thought to tell their doctor, while 10 per cent said that there had been a clerical error.

A quarter of those who missed appointments had previously failed to turn up on at least one other occasion.

Many hospitals have begun to use text-messaging to remind patients of appointments, finding this much cheaper than sending out letters.

Ealing Hospital, in West London, sends 20 texts per day, reminding patients of the date and time of their appointments. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many patients turned up for their appointments only because they received the text reminder.

NO-SHOW LEADERS

Cosmopolitan sophisticates in extremely expensive housing (17.9%)

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