DNA rates as high as 15% in some parts of mental health trust's service

It said up to 30 per cent of booked appointments “do not result in patient contact”.

The figure comes from a report into measures the trust is taking to improve productivity.

It said: “Work is being undertaken to build in contextual information that helps to explain the drivers behind some of the variation observed. Community activity is being analysed to cross-reference the level of booked appointments that do not result in patient contact (up to 30 per cent in some services) with variations in cost.

“Waste, as represented by DNAs has been analysed - with some services operating consistently at15 per cent DNA rates,” it said.

“At a Clinical Academic Group level, staff costs are being broken down to a cost per wte level to enable some understanding of whether or not these costs are being contained and how staff costs overall relate to occupancy (in some areas this year, occupancy has reduced, whilst overall staff costs and numbers of staff utilised have increased),” it added.