About the project
When patients do not attend their appointments in outpatient clinics at hospitals, time and resources which could have benefited others often go to waste. In Norway, the purpose of the fee is to motivate patients to attend their appointments. Today, you can be charged a fee of NOK 1 500 (approximately EUR 138) if you do not show up as agreed and have not given notice within 24 hours before the appointment was scheduled. However, patients in outpatient care within psychiatric or substance abuse treatment can only be charged a fee for non-attendance limited to the size of the user fee, which today amounts to NOK 375 (approximately EUR 35).
To dig deeper into the normative foundation of the use of non-attendance fees, we will first conduct a document analysis of public consultation documents and map out the arguments for and against the non-attendance fee used in the Norwegian debate from the late 2000s. In another document analysis, we will investigate different justifications for implementing non-attendance fees through analysing and comparing policy documents from Denmark and Norway. Thereafter, a survey study will be carried out, where people's conceptions and opinions about the fee are to be investigated. In the end, we will discuss the findings from the three empirical papers and conduct an ethical analysis of whether non-attendance fees are a policy tool that should be used in the health services.
Outcomes
Publications:
Fystro, Joar Røkke & Feiring, Eli (2023). Mapping out the arguments for and against patient non-attendance fees in healthcare: An analysis of public consultation documents. Journal of Medical Ethics. ISSN 0306-6800. 49(12), s. 844–849. doi: 10.1136/jme-2022-108856.
Fystro, Joar Røkke & Feiring, Eli (2023). Policy-makers’ conception of patient non-attendance fees in specialist healthcare: a qualitative document analysis. BMJ Open. ISSN 2044-6055. 13. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-077660.
Opinion:
Fystro, Joar Røkke (2023). Nonattendance fees versus legal protetction? Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association. ISSN 0029-2001. 143(2), s. 122. Full text in English.
Financing
The project is financed by the ordinary budget of the Institute of Health and Society at the University of Oslo.
Project start - finish
2020–2025