Patients group calls for penalty scheme as nearly one-third are no-shows for dental appointments

Hong Kong should introduce a penalty scheme as nearly one-third of dental appointments are no-shows, says Tim Pang Hung-cheong, a patients' rights advocate with the Society for Community Organization.

His comments came as a new online booking system for appointments at public dental clinics was launched on Monday, replacing an arrangement in which residents had to queue for hours to secure a slot. Residents can log on to the system to register for a spot every day between 6 am and 11.30 am.

Pang said on Thursday that all the slots were snapped up on the first day the system went into action, yet around 30 percent of them had not shown up for their dental appointments.

He suggested that a penalty scheme should be established to prohibit those who missed their appointments without valid reasons from making another appointment for some time. 

Although it is difficult to determine what constitutes an unjustified absence, some measures should still be in place to prevent the waste of public resources, he said, adding that authorities should ensure that citizens receive notification when having successfully secured a slot.

Meanwhile, the patients' rights advocate said authorities do not have a plan to address the situation where citizens repeatedly fail to secure an appointment.

Authorities should allocate some quotas to establish a special team for those people to increase their chances of being selected, said Pang.

He also anticipated that the demand for dental appointments would go down after the introduction of a Community Dental Support Programme around the middle of this year.