Cancelled appointment follow-up

22 items 1 source

Hospital policies for cancelled appointments lacking clinical input to assess individual patient urgency, risking vulnerable patients.

Cross-Source Insight

Cancelled appointment follow-up has been flagged across 1 independent accountability source:

22 PFD reports

This theme has been identified in one data source. As more data is added, cross-references may emerge.

Caitlin Imber
24 Oct 2025 · North Wales (East and Central)
Concerns: CAMHS closed a referral for a vulnerable child due to missing contact information without making further enquiries, causing a significant and potentially dangerous delay in support.
Response: CAMHS has changed its standard operating procedure to ensure appointments are offered even when contact numbers are missing from referrals, a change made following the investigation. The service is also …
Responded
Milos Jankovic
01 Oct 2025 · East London
Concerns: Inadequate follow-up for Barrett’s oesophagus in primary care, including a lack of routine recall and prompts for GPs to consider endoscopy, is leading to missed surveillance and preventable cancers.
Overdue
Joseph Powell
17 May 2025 · Cheshire
Concerns: GPs failing to proactively book follow-up appointments for mental health patients, instead requiring them to self-book, often results in missed care and medication for vulnerable individuals.
Responded
Lady Lola Crouch
21 Feb 2025 · Essex
Concerns: The patient was not informed of potential malignancy findings from a CT scan, leading to missed follow-up. Additionally, insufficient medical staffing caused delayed responses to urgent patient deterioration.
Responded
Sara Grinnell
17 Sep 2024 · South Wales Central
Concerns: Extensive and repeated delays in urgent gynaecology appointments, relying only on written correspondence, resulted in a significant 24-month diagnostic delay. There were missed opportunities to escalate urgency upon re-referral.
Responded
Jacqueline Cobain
25 Mar 2024 · London Inner (South)
Concerns: A system flaw allowed a patient to submit concerning questionnaire responses after cancelling an appointment, but there was no protocol to alert clinicians to review these urgent responses outside the standard timeframe.
Responded
Paul Bradley
26 Jan 2024 · Worcestershire
Concerns: Systemic failures in patient follow-up, appointment tracking, and inter-team communication led to missed critical appointments and inadequate care for a hard-of-hearing patient.
Responded
Rachelle Ross
17 Feb 2023 · Newcastle upon Tyne and North Tyneside
Concerns: GP IT systems lack automatic flags for patients who miss national smear test invitations, leading to inconsistent follow-up and reduced patient safety.
Responded
Hugo Carlos
01 Feb 2023 · Berkshire
Concerns: The GP clinical system lacks a scheduled task feature for future alerts, burdening patients with follow-up responsibility and risking missed essential investigations.
Overdue
Stephen Barton
01 Oct 2021 · Staffordshire South
Concerns: The NHS lacks a system for tracking non-cancer outpatient appointments, unlike cancer cases. Implementing such a system could prevent unnecessary deaths and improve administrative efficiency.
Overdue
Hannah Bampfylde
05 May 2021 · Surrey
Concerns: Poor communication protocols meant Hannah's GP was unaware of her non-engagement with mental health services. The engagement policy lacked clarity on re-booking appointments and escalating non-attendance, allowing newly referred patients to slip through the system.
Responded
Imre Thomas
04 Apr 2021 · Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen
Concerns: Cancelled hospital appointments put vulnerable prisoners at risk, highlighting a need to investigate organizing special prison clinics for hospital consultants.
Overdue
Gemma Azhar
11 Feb 2020 · West Sussex
Concerns: Repeated mental health appointment cancellations by administrators, without clinical follow-up, left patients at risk. The "formal position" for duty worker contact after cancellations lacks proper policy, training, or consistent application.
Responded
Connor Davies
29 Nov 2019 · South Wales Central
Concerns: Repeated cancellation of consultant psychiatrist appointments without clinical input on patient urgency meant individuals at serious need could "fall through the net," as a preventative system was not yet operational.
Responded
John Lee
19 Oct 2018 · Mid Kent and Medway
Concerns: A clerical error severely delayed an urgent vascular appointment, changing an elective procedure to an emergency and contributing to the patient's death, highlighting issues with ambiguous terminology and inadequate checking systems.
Overdue
Robert Power
09 Jul 2018 · Gloucestershire
Concerns: A patient was "lost to follow-up" for eight years after an incorrect diagnosis, highlighting a risk of future deaths if outpatient care is not consistently maintained.
Responded
Michael Halfpenny
01 Jun 2017 · Leicester City and Leicestershire South
Concerns: A GP referral for vascular screening was sent to the wrong department and refused, with no follow-up. Both GP practice and hospital screening teams lacked awareness and proper systems for managing screening referrals.
Responded
Luke Moulding
13 Apr 2017 · Bedfordshire and Luton
Concerns: A critical "opt-in" follow-up letter was not sent after a psychiatric consultation, and the current system of typing letters rather than using pre-printed materials caused significant delays.
Responded
Shelia Stokes
09 Dec 2016 · Nottinghamshire
Concerns: Systemic delays plagued patient care, including following up on missed appointments, acting on alerts, and an inadequate protocol for obtaining custom-made grafts, all exacerbated by an incomplete internal investigation.
Responded
Ann Hardman
10 Oct 2016 · Isle of Wight
Concerns: The DVT scan protocol relies on GP referrals for follow-up, risking patients missing re-scans. An automatic re-booking system from the ultrasound department is needed to improve compliance.
Responded
Suzanne Greenwood
09 Oct 2015 · Manchester (West)
Concerns: Lack of systems and protocols for contacting patients who miss appointments, informing GPs of non-attendance or discharge, and ensuring continuity of care when patients are lost to follow-up.
Responded
Amanda Hawkins
26 Nov 2014 · Staffordshire (South)
Concerns: Patient vulnerability was exacerbated by service changes and failures in coordinating care, including sending critical appointment letters directly to a patient unable to understand them, and a lack of follow-up on missed appointments.
Overdue