Madam, – I recently received a long-awaited letter informing me of my appointment in St James’s Hospital Dublin for a DNA scan. Enclosed was a note saying “Please don’t be a DNA”.
A DNA is someone who did not attend the hospital for their appointment. They did not call to cancel or postpone and so the time was lost.
Last year St James’s Hospital alone had almost 25,000 DNAs. That means that 25,000 other patients were left to wait, including some inpatients who could not be discharged until a doctor had seen their scan. How many DNAs were there in the whole country? How much time is being wasted?
Of course, sometimes there will be a last-minute emergency that will prevent attendance. But if most of us turned up or phoned to rearrange our appointment we could help reduce waiting lists ourselves. – Yours, etc,