More than 4,750 appointments scheduled last year were not attended by adult patients – working out at about 20 for every working day.
For children, 10% of appointments scheduled, 719 of 7,218, were no-shows.
Paediatric patients are separated from adults in the KPI due to them having a reliance on parents or guardians to assist them in meeting their appointment.
HSC and MSG both said they understood that sometimes there were circumstances preventing patients from attending their appointment, but it was difficult to fill an appointment slot at short notice. One in seven outpatient appointments were cancelled by the health services.
The target is for less than 10% of appointments to be cancelled, but 2025 saw 15% of appointments cancelled or rearranged, slightly up on the previous year.
The figure does not include appointments cancelled due to administrative error but does include the changing of appointment times.
The latest KPI report said that in specialties where there is only one locally-based consultant, there may be some cancellations when the consultant is unable to provide the service, such as unexpected absences or delays.
Delayed transfer for patients into a nursing or care home is causing unnecessarily long stays in hospital for patients.
Delays can sometimes be caused by an inability to secure a bed at a nursing or care home because the patient is awaiting a review by the needs assessment panel to assess their ongoing care requirements.
There has been a noticeable difference in delays since 2021.
The monthly median average for this was 298 days, compared to 338 days in 2024, highlighting the severity of the problem.
Excluding patients in a similar position on the rehabilitation ward, on average there were 17 patients in hospital awaiting the appropriate discharge across the year, but by the end of 2025 it had reduced to nine patients.
At the end of 2024 there were 18 patients in such a position.