The casecof the missing hospital appointment

Hospitals are very good at getting things like appointments. wrong and then blaming the 'no show' patients.
I had. an appointment booked in for a clinic during lockdown, this was cancelled due to the restrictions and they stated quite clearly in the letter that they'd be in touch to reschedule another appointment once restrictions eased. Months later I received a discharge letter because "I had failed to make contact for a follow-up appointment"!
I had to get my GP to re-refer me to the clinic and he was not happy to be having to sort out the incompetence of a booking clerk either. Apparently his letter to the hospital reflected his annoyance too.

Sorry wrote this hours ago- ( but it only got added now- how odd).
Great you got your appointment allocated! Well done at persevering! It’s the chaos with the appointment systems that has pushed me over the edge to retire ( soon)

The hospitals I work in have stopped sending text reminders, ( I’m not sure why) so only send out letters. Lots of patients who fail to attend appointments say they have not got the letters. I tend to think the postal system, not the hospital are to blame!
However, where booking centres,clinic clerks and secretaries all book appointments inconsistencies can occur. The other issue as far as I can tell, is that clinics have appointments slots for different types of patients- for instance new patients and follow ups or post op reviews go into different time slots. Some patients needs very specific clinic for instance one where a specific technician or equipment is available for tests) Different categories of patients have different wait lists, and the wait for one may be longer than another. Plus at present the pandemic has caused greater backlogs on some waiting lists than others and a lot of manual and adhoc processes where errors can occur!

I hope you get your appointment soon- and receive reliable notification!

It is completely illogical. What is needed are logicians to manage the system.

When DH was shielding, his cancer drugs had to be collected in person from the hospital a 20 mile round trip across the city for me who hates driving in traffic and gets lost
I did it and he didn't ever get covid unlike his poor father who died in hospital from covid without anyone being able to see him.

I want to see a doctor so have a phone appointment in 2 weeks time. I guess I should be pleased!

Callistemon21

It just seems ludicrous that I'm not allowed to go to the hospital for a consultation but have to go to the same department to fetch my medication because they won't post it or deliver it to our local surgery.

It is indeed. The hospital writes my prescription and Lloyd's homecare deliver it.
However, my pharmacy wouldn't deliver my surgery ones, even although I was sheilding!

It just seems ludicrous that I'm not allowed to go to the hospital for a consultation but have to go to the same department to fetch my medication because they won't post it or deliver it to our local surgery.

My recent telephone appts have all been physical after two years of telephone ones.

However, my GP appts, including today's are still telephone ones.

I have no idea.
My 2 nearest hospitals still have security guards on the doors, armed with masks and antibac.

Why are we still having telephone appointments now that restrictions are easing?

And, if it is because of Covid safety reasons that I had a telephone appointment with a registrar, why do I have to drive 20 miles to the hospital to pick up my medication from that department?

I have the nhs app which showed a refferal was overdue to be made, and asking me to phone the hospital, but I could never get a person to speak to.
Then, when "I" missed the appointment, the referral note disappeared from the app.

Thanks, Silverlining.
Hope the clinic is worth the wait.

MissAdventure I am pleased that there is light at the end of your dark tunnel x

Our hospital operates the MyCare patient portal. Once registered you can view your appointment and clinical letters etc. and print them off if you want to.
As soon as the letter is written I get a text so that I can see it online. This hasn’t stopped mistakes though. I rang yesterday chasing an appointment letter that I’d been advised of a week previously to be told ‘sorry, we forgot to print it out, I’ll send it now’!

THats brilliant news, you have it in writing thank goodness. What a relief.
I have had similar problems with a hospital appointment so can sympathise.
Hope all goes well fir you.

I've had the letter through today to inform me of the appointment.
Astoundingly fast work, considering I didnt phone until late yesterday morning.

Callistemon, Zoe why do these administrative horror stories not surprise me! There have been others too which defy belief.
Well done MissAdventure for not giving up the will to live and let's hope you at last get the treatment you urgently need.

One of my df, a retired nurse, was so incensed by the crazy system and her DH's long wait for a new hip that she wrote to the Health Secretary. MSP and had the system changed so that Edinburgh and Borders residents didn't have to travel to beyond Glasgow to attend 10 minute post op checkups. They still had to travel there for the operations, due to lack of theatre space here, but at least their GP could be trusted to sign them off afterwards. Small victory.

Callistemon21

I did get a text, an email and a letter on time advising me of an appointment with a Consultant last week, in Welsh and in English.
It asked me all the usual questions about Covid symptoms and advised me to get a PCR test if I had any symptoms, not to attend and to let them know immediately. They would re-arrange the appointment. Very efficient.
Then it said "Please be advised that this is a telephone appointment".

Well I'm lost for words!

What is going on?

I was offered a consultant appointment in an area 50 miles away. I accepted it but before it was due I had a call from a more local hospital saying my appointment could be there.

I phone initial hospital to cancel, thanking them and making sure I'd be going to the other hospital

I then received a letter saying I'd missed the appointment and the letter also gave me date and time of new appointment.

Once again I phone up, apologise and tell them that I would not be needing an appointment with them.

I got yet another appointment seeing as I'd missed the first two.

I didn't know what to say. Not the type to rage on the phone so I did make one call asking them to delete my details and then wrote them an email and a handwritten letter which seemed to do the trick.

I did get a text, an email and a letter on time advising me of an appointment with a Consultant last week, in Welsh and in English.
It asked me all the usual questions about Covid symptoms and advised me to get a PCR test if I had any symptoms, not to attend and to let them know immediately. They would re-arrange the appointment. Very efficient.
Then it said "Please be advised that this is a telephone appointment".

I expect the pandemic has made it all worse, trying to coordinate things, but that rude woman was the last straw, and the thought that I may have to start the whole process all over again.

My husband received a cancellation letter for an appointment he didn’t know he had. He has received I the not too distant past appointment letters, appointment letters saying if you haven’t heard by a certain date to call, sometimes the appointment letter has arrived after the date of the appointment. They never seem to believe that there communication hassle arrived or arrived late.

Well, hopefully I'm on the home run now, but it has tried my patience, and my poor body.
I am housebound, can barely get around in my flat now.

Great new MissAdventure ! but 2 years that is awful, isn't it.

Poor old NHS.
A df is paying £15k for a new knee next week, privately. She has hardly had to wait at all. It makes me sad. It's as if the work and campaigning of our predecessors in the past 100 years means nowt. Good health was the prerogative of those who could afford it.

Well, the PALS lady told me about the appointment.
I will get a letter to confirm it.

I have emailed her to confirm the day and time she told me, and told her I am creating a paper trail.
It was almost 2 years ago I first went to my gp and said I felt poorly.

Hurray!!

How odd you got sent that appointment, though.
The appointments system does seem to be chaotic.

Apparently, the appointment I failed fo attend was one I wouldn't have been attending anyway.
It was just between consultants, so I have no idea why it was shown on my nhs app with a message to phone. (Unless I'm unwittingly a hospital consultant)

So, I think the issue was neatly sidestepped and smoothed over without anyone losing face.

I don't care now, because I am finally going to be seeing an actual person! Whoopee!

I had the problem of being sent an appointment and arriving to find it had been cancelled. No one told me. Most of my care has been done by me organising blood tests, sending my results to a secretary and having an email reply to advise medication changes. Graves has been a frightening and life changing experience and I've seen a consultant in person once. My GP knows very little about it.

I think you really need to push to get the care you need at the moment. It's hard but it is necessary as your health matters.

Best wishes