NHS wasting money

I get texts or email (my choice) I only get a letter for very important results
Paperless is available for me

We get letters all the time about appointment vaccinations and most of the time they are duplicated.
I have family and friends who work in different areas of NHS they all constantly complain how NHS wastes time and money.

Skydancer

I've never seen a feedback system? Will I be asked at the end of the whole treatment do you think?

No, I doubt it, but Google the name of your provider and patient feedback and see what comes up.

Norah

Email. Paperless should be available for all who wish.

We easily use it for all things medical.

Weekly for physio, as I said.

It's certainly not available here.

DH was sent for treatment to a private hospital under contract to the NHS. He received at least half a dozen letters from said hospital giving appointment dates, changing them, duplicates, wrong dates. So it’s not just the NHS where admin is hopeless!

I've never seen a feedback system? Will I be asked at the end of the whole treatment do you think?

Skydancer

I am having regular physio. I received 5 letters on the same day, each informing me of an appointment. In with each letter were 2 other sheets of A4 paper informing me of directions etc. As well as this, I also have a small card with the appointments written on and receive reminder text messages. It is ridiculous. I cannot believe someone in the office can't work out how to send 5 dates in one letter and also to realise that I know perfectly well how to get there.

I don't suppose anybody in any office is organising the letters. They're almost certainly computer generated and there's something going wrong with the programming.

Have you used the patient feedback system to tell them?

I am having regular physio. I received 5 letters on the same day, each informing me of an appointment. In with each letter were 2 other sheets of A4 paper informing me of directions etc. As well as this, I also have a small card with the appointments written on and receive reminder text messages. It is ridiculous. I cannot believe someone in the office can't work out how to send 5 dates in one letter and also to realise that I know perfectly well how to get there.

E-mails, text messages or phone calls for us here on Tyneside. Paper confirmation for surgery in hospital. Works well.

My hospital puts all results online, although Dexa scans, MRIs and echos take a little longer. I think they need to be seen by a human first to be interpreted. I always ask to be copied in to anything they send to my GP and they've never had any problem with that.

My GP was the same with blood test results until recently. By law, they have to provide what they call your summary patient record, which includes blood test results, online.

Since even our private physio can accomplish email notes, I wonder why the NHS is unable, in some instances to save paper?

I wish ours were paperless. My surgery doesn't put blood results online so time is spent phoning up and waiting in a queue to get them. Everything comes by mail as opposed to email, and when I had to wait 4 months for my Dexa Scan results, I was told that the hospital in question only posted the results to my surgery and didn't send them electronically.

When I rang the hospital and asked for a copy of the Dexa results, I was told I had to fill in a request form which would need to be posted to me and I would have to post it back, and definitely not email it. The form duly arrived and was 20 pages long!!!!! I didn't complete it. Instead my GP rang me with the results and when I asked for a copy, he asked if I had a smart phone and immediately pinged it to me! Job done.

I can't remember the last time I had any paper-based contact from the NHS and I've had a lot of contact with the NHS over the last year. I received a text informing me that I was eligible to book a Covid booster and a link to book it. It was the same with my long term condition review - a text and personalised link to book the appointment. All communications with the hospital are done online.

As others have said, it sounds like an error in the database, so your son should contact whoever is sending the letters and inform them.

Salti

My doctor's surgery is great at sending texts with links, emails etc but the only problem I have is working out who they are for as they have my mobile number for my husband, my blind brother-in-law and me. The good thing is if there is a link to click you then have to enter a date of birth and the link only works for the correct date of birth.

We're lucky. Ours are always emails. Easy to discern who is going to physio and when. Other appointments, if necessary.

My doctor's surgery is great at sending texts with links, emails etc but the only problem I have is working out who they are for as they have my mobile number for my husband, my blind brother-in-law and me. The good thing is if there is a link to click you then have to enter a date of birth and the link only works for the correct date of birth.

Email. Paperless should be available for all who wish.

We easily use it for all things medical.

Weekly for physio, as I said.

Yes they do seem to have a serious failure to communicate sometimes.
I received multiple letters about the same arrangement (plus email reminder and text message) for a research trial blood test I am part of .
And confusing hospital appointment details for the same day and time, one as a ‘phone consultation the other an “in person” appointment. This was in a pdf download ?!!
I didn’t know whether to stay in or go to the hospital 🤔

I have thought the same with regard to appointment letters. I have even received appointment letters after the date of the appointment.

There's always the possibility of data errors - so yes, his records need checking. Somebody, somewhere, had to type in his details, so maybe he's 92 on their database!

We get letters, sometimes two, from NHS Scotland, no choice …

Nandad Son should contact the sender of the letter to tell them that they are confusing him with someone else of the same name, who presumably is of an age to need that letter but HASN'T had it, and could they please adjust their database to correct this.

If they are sending him notifications that are not relevant, what from his personal profile are they sending to a stranger?

We receive emails.

Also private contractors (physio and such) weekly for every appointment. No paper, stamp, time wasted. Just happens!

Wish we could Aldom, but it’s not available here.

My local hospital, the John Radcliffe in Oxford, doesn't send me letters. They email me, including within the email a letter, which I download.
Perhaps you need to opt for Paperless contact.