Time-poor Londoners are using their holiday days to attend routine dental appointments, according to a new study.
The study, commissioned by Bupa UK, revealed that 64% of Londoners regularly use a whole day’s holiday to attend a health appointment because they are too busy during a working day, and 28% of people said they had waited more than four weeks to book an appointment for a health issue.
‘We know that people struggle to fit their health and wellbeing needs into their busy working lives,’ Lee Martin, manager at Bupa’s new centre in Canary Wharf, Crossrail Place, said.
‘This means some aren’t addressing health issues promptly and others are having to use precious holiday time just to get a routine appointment.
‘Alongside our jobs, it is crucial people don’t neglect their health as this may lead to time out of the office in the long run.’
Half of Londoners cancel or re-schedule
More than half (57%) of Londoners admitted to regularly cancelling or re-scheduling appointments due to work commitments.
And 59% of Londoners said they were typically too busy to attend during a working day, giving the most common reasons as:
- Last-minute work deadlines (45%)
- Covering for other colleagues (37%)
- Being worried that taking time out of the office would reflect badly with colleagues or superiors (24%).
Other findings from the study were:
- 54% of Londoners avoid booking health appointments even when they have a health issue because of struggling to get time out of the office
- 44% say that a health complaint has worsened because they have been unable to attend an appointment, resulting in them taking a sick day
- 39% of Londoners admitted being able to attend health appointments would increase their job satisfaction and over a third (38%) said it would boost their productivity
- 34% admitted that clinics with longer than normal opening hours were the biggest help when booking health appointments.
