A NEW appointments system is cutting down on the number of time-wasting patients who fail to turn up at Basingstoke hospital's outpatients department.

The new "partial booking" system has reduced the number of patients' cards marked "Did Not Attend" by 100 per month.

Hospital spokeswoman Gina Lilley said the total for April this year was 780. She added: "This was 100 less than the same month last year and we regularly used to run at over 1,000 so it is an improvement."

The new system is being used for all outpatient appointments except gynaecology, paediatrics, oral surgery and orthodontics.

But it will soon be expanded. Basingstoke hospital is one of only six in the former south east region of the NHS to introduce partial booking for outpatient appointments.

Karen Brown, general manager for outpatient services, told The Gazette: "We could not carry on in the way we did before.

"The old system meant we automatically sent you an appointment that would frequently have to be cancelled because it was so far in advance.

"Under the new system, six weeks before the appointment is to take place, we send a letter inviting you to telephone the call centre and confirm a date. The call centre is manned by four people from 8am to 8pm."

She said in orthopaedics where partial booking has been working for a year, the rate of non-attendance has dropped to three per cent, compared with a previous average of ten per cent.

The national level of non-attendance is between five and six per cent but varies between specialities.

However, she said there were still a significant number of patients failing to turn up. \

"It never fails to amaze me. People have the choice not to attend and I can do nothing about it. It's about the individual taking responsibility. It is not just us who are affected it is the GPs too because they spend time writing referral letters."