Characterising the nationwide burden and predictors of unkept outpatient appointments in the National Health Service in England: A cohort study using electronic health records
Philpott-Morgan et al.
The finding, in our words
A national cohort study of unkept outpatient appointments across NHS England, quantifying the scale of missed appointments and who misses them: the cost of requiring the patient to travel.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
Self-collection of urine, pharyngeal and anal specimens for chlamydia and gonorrhoea testing was highly acceptable among HIV PrEP clients in Vietnam, with 97.9% providing specimens from all three sites and 99.4% willing to repeat the process; cost was the most important factor influencing testing preferences.
Comfort Draw collected adequate capillary blood from the upper arm in 85.5 per cent of attempts for total blood volume and 95.1 per cent for serum volume, with 17 of 19 serum analytes meeting CLIA acceptance criteria against matched venous samples. The procedure scored a mean pain rating of 0.39 out of 10, indicating high patient acceptability, and the device’s simpler design may lower cost for decentralised diagnostics.
The authors observe that self-sampling devices for capillary blood are gaining traction as a patient-preferred alternative to venous collection, with one centre reporting a 15 percent reduction in laboratory test volumes when local collection was offered. They argue that successful integration into total laboratory automation requires addressing cost, transport regulations and sample volume adequacy while ensuring robust device design and seamless workflow compatibility.
A feasibility study at a Kathmandu maternity hospital showed newborn metabolic screening using dried blood spots achieved 98.8% parental consent, driven primarily by cost-free participation. Despite pandemic-related transport delays to a central Indian laboratory, results were delivered within two weeks, detecting metabolic abnormalities in 13 of 825 infants, with 90% of healthcare providers endorsing routine implementation.