Patients in West London were among the worst for failing to attend hospital appointments, with one in six first appointments missed.

One in six first appointments at Imperial College Hospitals NHS Trust (15.9%) were missed by patients, putting the trust amongst the worst in England.

Also among the worst in England were Ealing Hospital with 15.8% of first attendances missed, North Middlesex University Hospital with 15.4% missed and one in eight (12.8%) being missed at West Middlesex Hospital.

Patients were also among the most likely to miss follow up appointments at West London hospitals, with 17.6% missed at Ealing Hospital, 15.9% missed at North Middlesex, 15.3% missed at Imperial College and 15.3% missed at North West London.

One in 15 (6.8%) of arranged admissions at Ealing and North West London hospital trusts in the year to September 2014 were missed by patients who failed to turn up, among the worst rates in England.

In the year to September, patients missed 117,159 first appointments at West London hospitals, as well as 264,950 follow-up appointments.

Patients also failed to turn up for arranged admissions on 6,094 occasions, up by 16.8% on the previous year to September, when 5,218 admissions were missed.

The number of missed first appointments was up 2.5% since the year to September 2013, while missed follow up appointments were up 6.4%.

Across England, patients missed 5.3million first and follow-up appointments at hospital trusts across the country in the year to September.

The number of first appointments where patients did not attend rose from 1.57m in the year to September 2013 to 1.62m in the following year.

However, as more people are being referred to consultants, the proportion of first appointments that were missed has stayed the same.

The number of follow-up appointments missed has fallen slightly, from 3.74m to 3.72m.

Patients also failed to turn up 112,144 times for arranged admissions to hospital, a 6% rise on the 105,951 times in the year to September 2013.

 An Imperial College NHS Trust spokeswoman said: “We are working on ways to make our services more easily accessible for our patients and we are continually looking to improve administrative processes and communication with patients to achieve this.

“We are currently improving our patient administration and IT systems, and are introducing more ‘one stop clinics’ for some conditions, such as breast cancer, in which patients have their consultation, tests and in most cases get results all on the same day.

“We are also rolling out better ways to communicate with our outpatients, for example, sending text message reminders about appointments and providing ‘self-check-in’ booths to avoid queuing and speed up check-ins, both of which are already in place in several clinics and have received very positive feedback.

“The Trust is also trialling an initiative to include an informational film with appointment letters to make patients aware of what to expect, help them overcome any anxieties about their appointment and give them confidence in the service.

“Overall, we are committed to making improvements to better the experience for all our patients.”