I despair of NHS hospital clinics admin

Dh was once sent to the wrong clinic for a minor procedure - a few miles from the one he should have been told to go to.
So that was 2 appts. wasted.

A BiL had one of many previous letters re oncology appts. sent to an address he’d left 17 years previously! All others had gone to the right one - they evidently hadn’t deleted his old address.
Luckily the current residents forwarded it in time.

I don’t know whether it’s still a Thing, but when I was dealing with dementia I heard SO many complaints of appt. letters being sent to people with dementia, who’d v likely lose or throw them away, and would never remember - and (despite relatives pointing out that it’d be useless otherwise) staff refusing to send copies to relatives because of ‘patient confidentiality’ - if they didn’t yet have health and welfare P of A.
You do have to wonder how many appts. were wasted for this reason.

You need to fill in a form with the hospital or the department where you visit and ask for SMS messages on your mobile phone. I always get a text message reminding me of my appointment or a text telling me my appointment has been cancelled. Letters from hospitals are now very rare unless it is a letter confirming your first visit to a department to see a specialist. Even my GP has been authorised to send me SMS (short message service) messages. It has cut down on letters that can get lost in the post. I always receive a reminder of my appointment or a cancellation of my appointment the day before. It is much easier for staff to send multiple SMS messages at the same time rather than posting out letters to everyone.

All the notices everywhere about how people dont turn up to appts.

That could be because the letters, emails and texts often arrive after the appointment time.
It has happened here a few times.
Or they change the location of the clinic that day and fail to tell the patient

So much money is wasted through inefficiency.

Doctors need a simple system like hairdressers, that sends a reminder of your appointment to which you reply "yes" or "no" to whether you will be attending or not.

Apparently, many GP/hospital appointments are not cancelled in time to be refilled because people cannot find a way to get their message to anyone.

Your hairdresser must be very efficient, DaisyAnne!

I had hospital appointment yesterday
I had been contacted a week prior with a yes or no reply and a phone number to contact if you needed to rebook
This was auto replied to so you knew it had arrived
Further reminder the day before
Vital as I had 2 1/2 hour journey to get there

Callistemon21

Your hairdresser must be very efficient, DaisyAnne!

My hairdresser does this too, I think she’s signed up for an appt booking app as I get a confirmation appt text, asked for a deposit if it’s colour, then one the day before too It works really well. It’s so sad that totally inefficient admin lets our NHS down so badly

Inter hospital department contact also is a problem. I saw a consultant last week to discuss my upcoming bipass op and realised he had no clue I had recently been discharged after 10 days in hospital with acute ideopathic pancreatitis. I thought it might possibly have some bearing on the situation!
Both my surgery and hospital are very on the button with email & text reminders of appointments, always pointing out how many appointments are wasted and how much it costs the Nhs.

Because of Rheumatoid Arthritis I kept getting appointments for a hospital Out-Patients 27.5 miles away. I'm not a driver so had to get my hubby to drive me to/from and come with me into the hospital as they can be very confusing to me and I panic if I don't know where I'm going/coming out of. We're full-time self employed with no employees so it was a pest that we had to repeatedly take time off, we were losing trade. I was just asked the same boring old questions over and over. I got sick of telling them the pills and potions and injections just aren't working on me, got sick of being prodded and poked, got sick of them telling me ''but the medicines ARE working''. NOT ON ME THEY DON'T!

We no longer have a car so they said they'll do phone appointments instead. Various times they said they'll ring me at a particular time/date, mostly they never called. Then three times in a row they never called me so I thought sod it, I can't be arsed any more.

I then kept getting text-letters saying they'll call me on such-a-such date/time but I didn't bother replying and deleted the texts, I was just utterly p***ed off with the wasting the time and car fuel of myself and my hubby. I then received 2 postal letters saying they've now taken me off their lists as ''You're no longer interested in attending''. I was also given a mouthful by my doctor for not attending in person and not answering their calls!

The NHS has been going down hill for years!

About six years ago, I'd had a blocked sinus for about a year and the consultant said he would arrange and urgent appointment for surgery. Very quickly I got a pre-op appointment and waited ... and waited for the surgery. Six months later my 'urgent appointment' arrived. I asked the surgeon the reason for the delay and he put the blame on the appointments office. Luckily for all concerned, the surgery was a complete success and I have lovely, clear sinuses.

I was sent a link to book an appointment via mobile and clicked on the link a couple of days later when I had time to check my diary and the link had expired and now I don’t know what to do!

I get text messages and emails from the hospital about appointments with dates and times and a number to call if I can’t make it .
I also get text messages from my GP , dentists , hairdresser and physio . So much easier than letters . The only thing with emails is I have to check junk or spam folders , to see if they’ve gone there .
I’m my mothers carer and I’m signed up to get email and text reminders for her appointments as well .

Email PALS? They really need to know and record this and bring it to the attention of the clinic manager. It's a complete waste of NHS resources apart from being poor patient care. It will only take a few minutes. Copy to your MP also by email.

HelterSkelter I’ve had a similar problem. I received a text message confirming my appointment (it didn’t say what for) so I rang the number they’d given. They could find no outstanding appointments for me and said it was probably meant for someone else! I suggested they try to locate the person it was intended for and I could hear a sigh at the other end.
Yesterday my husband had a follow-up at a hospital and the doctor was surprised that a referral he’d made to another dept 3 months ago had not been actioned. He’s writing a letter of complaint and my husband should get an appointment within two weeks.
Are there just not enough appointments staff to deal with the workload, or is a better system needed? I despair sometimes.

OP I really do think you should ring PALS.

It is impossible to get in touch with depts at our local hospital, nobody will answer a phone !

I get txt messages for GP and any other medical appointments which are also available on the NHS app.

Marmight
I can beat that
When referred by a Welsh hospital to an English one for a heart op
The surgeon had no info such as scans etc I had to tell her what had been undertaken
When I contacted the consultant in the Welsh hospital I was told it was a case of patient confidentiality. Saying we don’t want our Welsh patients info divulged to the English
Sent a letter of release of my info
I think it is more a case English and Welsh NHS don’t use the same computer system. Ridiculous ‼️‼️

I get text reminders for the eye clinic. On two out of three visits, although he was there the consultant refused to see me as he would review the test results at a virtual clinic! It took 7 weeks for a letter to arrive telling me it’s likely that I have acute glaucoma. What the hell does that mean?
When I arrive and leave the clinic there are no other patients in the waiting room so you have to question how many appointments are either being missed or being spaced out badly.

I’m still waiting for a myringoplasty op promised a year ago I know they’ve forgotten about me. Went to A&Ebthe other night horrendous it was for my husband we left after five hours couldn’t stay any longer.

Whether you are at hospital or the GP surgery all you see are large signs about missed appointments and how much they cost. I don’t believe half those figures anyway.

They waste so much money. I receive text messages confirming hospital appointments and also a letter in the post.
My husband attends hospital a lot and regularly gets 3 letters in the post in different envelopes for one appointment.

I have spoken to a lot of people who have had to cancel GP appointments but can’t get through to anybody to cancel it. I have often been 17 in a queue.

DH received a copy of a letter last Thursday, 25th January, detailing in full the telephone conversation he had had recently with the nurse specialist at the hospital and which was addressed to his Consultant.

The letter was dated 20th January 2024. He couldn't remember any recent conversation.

On looking more closely, the letter had been dictated in October 2023, but not typed until January 2024, and referred to a telephone conversation last October.

Callistemon21

Your hairdresser must be very efficient, DaisyAnne!

My dentist uses a similar system.

DaisyAnneReturns

Callistemon21

Your hairdresser must be very efficient, DaisyAnne!

My dentist uses a similar system.

Our dentist is very efficient!

I had an at home eye test booked and arranged by online form, and telephone call.

I also got letters from the same organisation informing me of other dates for the appointment. One of the letters arrived two days after the optician had visited and prescribed.

There seems to be something amiss with internal communications in several organisations. I wonder who they buy their computers from.