EAST Lancashire’s hospitals have introduced a new reminder service for patients due to undergo planned surgery.

Bosses said that each year, more than 2,000 procedures are cancelled because patients failed to turn up for their surgery – and cancellations are costly.

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Now, a new reminder system called ERS Connect will see patients receive a phone call a few days before their appointment, with an option to confirm, cancel or rearrange the appointment.

Natalie Brockie, interim divisional general manager for surgery and anaesthetics, said: “Cancelling 2,400 operations on the day not only makes it impossible to offer that appointment to another patient, it also costs the trust more than £2million a year in lost income.

“By examining the reasons for patient cancellations, we found that 50 per cent were for non-clinical reasons and these could have been avoided if the patient had been contacted prior to the day of surgery.”

With almost 10 per cent of hospital appointments missed and costing the NHS millions of pounds each year, the new service is expected to produce significant savings.

The trust estimates it will pay for itself after preventing just 10 missed operations.

It is being delivered by Leeds-based specialist healthcare provider, ERS Connect.