Missed appointments cost the health care system “tens of millions of dollars” and the provincial government is launching a new public awareness campaign and notification system to ensure that people keep their appointments.

Health Minister Tom Osborne says approximately 20 to 24 per cent of all holter monitor appointments are missed.

The equivalent of one day per week are missed in EEG appointments, while many other areas, including lab services, ultrasound, cardiac ambulatory clinics and family care teams, all have a 10 per cent rate of missed appointments.

Ron Johnson, the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer with the NL Health Care System’s Eastern Urban Zone says an electronic automated notification system has already resulted in a drop in missed appointments and will be expanded across the province.

They’re going to roll the program out to all other clinical areas across the province. The expansion has begun, and they expect neurology and nephrology to be implemented within the next eight weeks.