The casecof the missing hospital appointment

Can I add that my manager would take a report of calls not being answered very seriously and we would be in trouble. Maybe find out who the manager is and give them a call.

I was just coming on to say that there was probably a new appointment being arranged in the background.

In the department where I work as a medical secretary in NHSGGC we have nothing to do with making appointments. The booking team do that. We might sometimes sort out a return appointment but not often. No-one would be pretending you had an appointment and there will have been an element of human error either from the booking team (not printing the letter) or the post office. Also whoever told you you were on the list, should have been able to see that you had an appointment that day - odd.

Finally, there is a lot of sickness but again in our department those phones are always diverted so that they are answered. Once again every department/trust won’t be the same.

Well, I can recommend contacting them, 100 percent.

They are very easy to speak to, and on the ball, in terms of rounding up all the info so they have it to hand.

Great you now have appointment...am in the same situation leaving messages on a sec's answerphone and never getting a call back...think i will contact PALS to see whether they can email direct to gynae/urology to chase up..

I have an appointment!!!
Wed 24th February at 4.30.

I'm writing it down here as well as everywhere else, as I haven't had a letter yet.

Just word of mouth from the PALS lady.

All GP referrals are made by what is known as ERS, electronic referral system. Paperwork can be generated via this system and you should ask for a copy. This will have a number for you to ring, a password and what is known as a UBRN number which is unique to you. Some GPs print the paperwork, some don’t, but this might be helpful in the first instance.

You could write to the hospital's administrator, or the senior consultant of the dept. that should have sent you the appointment, basically telling him the same as you have mentioned here, but adding dates, and your GP's name and address.

Do you know whether the hospital in question usually sends appointments by the post, by text message or by e-mail or phones them through?

There could have been a mistake in the address or telephone number they had been given, which is something that can be checked.

Not that that will help really, as they probably will maintain that you gave them the wrong information!

My rude consultant gave me a dreadful row for not taking the medicine she had prescribed and flatly refused to believe me when I said I had received neither prescription, letter, e- mail nor phone call from her.

Is there a Patients' Association, or does the UK not have them? If there is one, they may be if not able to help, but they will be able to register your complaint and if they receive others of the same kind regarding the same hospital do something to prevent future mistakes of this kind.

??????… really hope you get it sorted soon Miss A

Ah, thank you.
I know that PALS were rather uncomfortable to realise the serious problems I am living with, all documented in various scan results (all done at the hospital)
I am hoping they will come up trumps for me.

I have been reading this awful saga Missadventure
Trisher's advice was sound.

I think your GP ought to be on the case.

After waiting 8 months for a "ten minute" operation I wrote to the consultant and begged to get my op. I was living on painkillers. He wrote back explaining that he was a busy and very important surgeon and if my condition was life threatening he would see me sooner but as it wasn't, I would have to wait my turn.
The very next day the phone rang. It was his secretary offering me a cancellation!!
However, that was pre-covid times.
Good luck to you.

Thanks all.

I would definitely check that they have your correct details. I rang the hospital three times to get them to correct my GP surgery. Each time a letter was sent to another surgery and I wasn’t a patient there. They just couldn’t be bothered to amend my records. I really hope you manage to get an appointment soon Missadventure.

Have you moved in the past few years?
Or even in the past not-a-few?

A BiL undergoing cancer treatment had an appointment letter sent to an address he’d moved from 17 years previously.

Other letters had gone to the right address, and it was only because the new owners bothered to forward the letter after so long, that he didn’t miss an appointment.

From experience, NHS admin can be chaotic. Dh was sent for a minor procedure to the wrong clinic, quite a way from where he should have been sent, so that was an appt. wasted.

They like to blame patients for not turning up, but I dare say their admin may be equally to blame. On a similar note, I’ve heard so many times of relatives telling hospital staff not to send appt, letters to people with dementia, but to a relative, because the person with dementia will never take note or remember, and will more than likely hide the letter or throw it away.
But they still send them, regardless.

MerylStreep

^Consultants wondering why patients hadn’t been turning up at clinics^ Mmmm?
That’s one way of keeping people out of hospitals: just don’t contact them ?
Just saying.

And what a waste of time and money!

The Appointments Department has sharpened up since, I think.
They tend to phone and invite you to make an appointment now.

Good Luck MissAdventure if possible try to approach it with a sense of humour as well. When we had issues we found it the only way to cope with the buck passing, the lies, the declarations of ignorance and the whole heap of other things the different hospital departments came up with when challenged.

Consultants wondering why patients hadn’t been turning up at clinics Mmmm?
That’s one way of keeping people out of hospitals: just don’t contact them ?
Just saying.

I dont think you're alone by any means, MissAdventure

When DH did get another appointment the Consultant said they'd been wondering why patients hadn't been turning up at clinics.

I hope you get this sorted MissAdventure , there has been lots of good advice on here.

So frustrating - I can understand how you feel. I had a very sarcastic lady on the phone one afternoon; she 'assumed I no longer wanted to see Mr. XX as I hadn't turned up'. Like you, I had no letter, phone call or any notification about the appointment but she clearly didn't believe me. I suspect she had the wrong address as she asked me to confirm it, and I got another appointment, by letter, for the next week. I wish I had been quick witted enough to ask for the address the hospital held for me.

Thank you. X

I am sorry MissA. I feel your pain. xx

Thank you all.
At least I feel I'm on the right line to getting listened to.
Politely persistent.

I was given the wrong appointment at orthopaedics; apparently I should have gone the week before, which was two days before I had rung for the appointment.
When I got there I was told by the receptionist that I had been taken off their list as a 'no show'.
So, unless I protested, I would have been left with a plaster on my leg for ever.

BTW trisher’s advice about calling daily and asking about cancellations is good. That’s exactly what I have done and will be seeing a specialist within 2 weeks of being referred.

Go back to PALS and ask them to escalate it both within PALS and to the governors. I’m sorry but our local PALS is a waste of space unless you threaten something. My son kept on getting appointments with a consultant who shared the same name as his orthopaedic surgeon. The incorrect consultant was an obstetrician! After this happened a couple of times he would ring up to make sure he was seeing the right consultant would be told yes, then his appointment would be cancelled because he wasn’t seeing the right person. We complained to PALS who contacted the orthopaedic surgeons secretary as well as giving us her number. Despite numerous messages being left she didn’t call us until we contacted PALS and told them we wanted to make an official complaint. We got a call back that afternoon from the surgeon who got the problem sorted.
Unfortunately sometimes you have to shout loudly to be heard above the others that are shouting.