FEWER patients are failing to turn up for hospital appointments in Gwent - thanks largely to a new booking system for outpatients.

DNAs - Did Not Attends - cost the NHS across the United Kingdom millions of pounds a year.

But the new system being introduced throughout the UK and known as partial booking, appears to be having a positive effect in Gwent.

It gives the patient a say, several weeks in advance, in arranging a convenient date and time for their first outpatient appointment, rather than being allocated a date out of the blue.

Partial booking now takes place across all clinical specialities in Gwent, after testing in two fields, dermatology and ear, nose and throat.

In dermatology, DNAs fell from 47 out of 575 (8.2 per cent) in April 2002, to 33 out of 763 (4.3 per cent) in February this year.

In ENT, 65 outpatients out of 502 (12.9 per cent) failed to turn up in April last year, compared with 65 out of 749 (8.3 per cent) in February.

One of the targets in the SaFF (Strategic and Financial Framework), the NHS in Wales budget system, is that outpatient DNAs be cut to 5 per cent by the end of March 2004.

Measuring the true cost of each DNA is a tricky business, but an NHS report two years ago estimated it at a minimum of £50.

During the year to the end of March 2003, 12,663 out of 125,352 outpatients missed appointments at Gwent Healthcare Trust clinics, a rate of 10 per cent. Applying the £50 estimate, DNAs cost Gwent hospitals at least £633,000 last year.

Trust bosses are confident of hitting the 5 per cent target.

"We are well placed to achieve the 5 per cent rate because of the success of partial booking," said Alan Davies, the trust's head of performance. He added cutting DNAs should also make running the clinics easier.

* The trust has renewed a plea to patients to let the relevant hospital know as soon as possible if they cannot attend so the slot can be offered to another patient.