I despair of NHS hospital clinics admin

biglouis

I used to get health visiters knocking on my door without an appointment or notice to check my blood pressure, etc. Last time one arrived I had a visiter and it was obviously inconvenient. She was pushy and insisted upon going ahead.

I have now complained to the practice manager and they have assured me they will send me a text the day before. If I dont want it I can go on Patient Access and cancel it.

Ive also been pushed into a couple of hospital appointments in the past which I had no intention of attending. However when you ring the number to check, rebook or cancel there is no answer. Then they send a text to confirm attend cancel or rebook a few days before. When you respond they tell you it is "too late" and you will have to ring the number where no one answers.

How old are you?
Health Visitors usually work with children aged 0 - 5.

District Nurses will only do home visits to patients just discharged from hospital and those who are chronically ill and housebound. Any indication you can walk to the car and they will stop visits.

I used to get health visiters knocking on my door without an appointment or notice to check my blood pressure, etc. Last time one arrived I had a visiter and it was obviously inconvenient. She was pushy and insisted upon going ahead.

I have now complained to the practice manager and they have assured me they will send me a text the day before. If I dont want it I can go on Patient Access and cancel it.

Ive also been pushed into a couple of hospital appointments in the past which I had no intention of attending. However when you ring the number to check, rebook or cancel there is no answer. Then they send a text to confirm attend cancel or rebook a few days before. When you respond they tell you it is "too late" and you will have to ring the number where no one answers.

About twenty years ago I did some voluntary work at a local hospital; I spent three hours a week matching results with patient files, so that they would then get an appointment with the specialist concerned. I discovered to my horror after a few weeks that I was the only person doing this - patients were waiting for months because the files were building up and almost filling a room. I doubled my efforts, and fortunately after about three months someone was employed to do this job part time - twenty hours a week.

Re the text message system -
I recently cancelled an appointment using their own text procedure and followed it up with three answer phone messages to the clinic just to be sure they knew.

The consultant actually phoned me at the time I was previously expected to be in his clinic...
I told him what had happened we had a chat about the improvement in my condition and then the next week I got the copy letter to my doctor which said he had phoned me because I wasn't at the clinic!! 🤬

I am not surprised at the number of GNs who have been similarly affected by incompetence...either by individuals or by the computer system.

I get txt messages to confirm appointments from our GP surgery and from our dentist. And occasionally also from the hospital, but that is not consistent across all departments in both hospitals in the trust.

It all makes what is an anxious situation even worse.

My husband has several serious medical conditions. One consultant has referred him ugently to another consultant in a different department. He has now received the appointment....for July. And that is "urgent" !! I don't think he will be around in July. The GP is involved now and chasing for an earlier appt.

The NHS is failing in so many areas. I am not surprised that staff leave which of course makes it worse.

I wonder who they buy their computers from
🤔

I hope not!! They have fingers in so many pies, including failed NHS IT systems that cost at least £10 billion.

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.

DaisyAnneReturns

Callistemon21

Your hairdresser must be very efficient, DaisyAnne!

My dentist uses a similar system.

Our dentist is very efficient!

Callistemon21

Your hairdresser must be very efficient, DaisyAnne!

My dentist uses a similar system.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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 .

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!

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.

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!

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.

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

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