Hospital appointments

Following his stroke earlier this year my DH gets these sorts of letters all the time Auntieflo as though the r/h is not communicating with the l/h .

This week he has 2 apps within an hour of each other in different hospitals . Impossible (but try telling them that) . He works very long hours and even getting to one app on time is difficult and stresses him out no end.

The whole of my daughters cancer experience was like that too.

Chest X Ray results are ready on the day , so don't stress about getting this done ASAP. Same with blood results - they take maybe one day, not a week.

They tell you to do this a week in advance so they can depend on getting the results, but that is the "worst case scenario" and one day would be ample.

Just do what you can and don't worry.

I got my hospital appointment letter (follow up) the day after the date of the appointment. I rang and informed them, made new appointment and pointed out that I didn't want a 'no show' black mark on my records.

Following day in the post I received new appointment letter and another letter saying I had a 'no show' mark on my records ?????

Thank you all for your comments. I am now calming down, after trying to book these appointments. As the were no forms to take to these appointments, confusion has been caused all round. When I finally spoke to someone in the cardiology dept, they said another someone would call back. He has just done so, and said he has no idea why I was sent this letter. I do NOT need either of these procedures, whew, and he will send out another letter, 1st class, same day, same time, but no tests, or x- rays. I can now go and beat the bank around the ears ? . (Admin, who created it?)

I was called for a heart check at the GP's and they didn't know why I was there. 6 months too soon.

Have just had a letter about a recent vein scan, sent before I have had the consultant's letter and asking me to speak to GP = so I am now worrying about it as I don't know what the letter said!

Dear Auntieflo
Before you call and beat the bank about the ears ? (not sure what that means but I’m guessing it means berate, obviously am ready to be corrected)someone in admin for creating the letter bear in mind,

Firstly, the person in admin you speak to is unlikely to have booked your appointment , there will be a team of booking clerks and a team of clerks who take patient calls.

Secondly, the instruction for your appointment would have come from your consultants secretary, the booking team will only book what they are instructed, they have no knowledge of who has been an inpatient and what follow up is needed until they are sent a request.

This final point is not specific to this op and I am sure it will endear me to no one so I am ready to never post again, here goes regardless, put yourself in the seat of the person you are berating for a minute, we are doing our job, trying to fit too many patients into too few appointment slots.
If I can’t give you the appointment you want I am not a f*****g c**t and I really am not responsible for the fact your consultant holds a clinic one day a week which means it clashes with your weekly bowls game or trip to Tesco. This is just a small, and mild example of what I dealt with daily. I was abused to a breakdown.

Granny gravy,
The no show letter would have been generated and sent before you called, it’s a very simple matter to amend your records to delete the dna, a couple of clicks on the mouse.

DH and I are climbing the wall with appointments for tests/injections, it is assumed we know the everyday workings of NHS and GP surgeries and know how to access the relevant service.
I have just been told by specialist nurse I should have been attending a specific clinic for the last two and a half years, nobody had mentioned it before. I could have saved myself some discomfort and possibly the last operation if I had only made an application for a support garment Set in motion by clued up nurse after I told her I still couldn't walk unaided after three weeks.
Twice I have been to practice nurse for blood test before being admitted to hospital, asked her to make sure A,B and C was checked as it was imperative. Phone call from hospital get A,B and C checked or we can not admit you

I too have been a victim of the appointment "system". My GP said she had booked me in for scans which should be done "pretty quick". After a week I phoned the surgery for a number to ring to see when they were going to be. On ringing the hospital being passed from one number to another they said they hadn't received a request. Back to ringing surgery who said "yes they have". Then went away to check and repeated that hospital had received request but it had only been a week so not to worry. I explained I was going away but could return if appmt came through. You will be fine says the surgery it won't be through yet and you will have plenty of notice. Moving on 3 weeks appmt arrives on Saturday for the following Sunday when I would be away and not able to return. No appointment line open over weekend so took all Monday morning to get through and rearrange. Compare this with eye department appointment - offer sent by text with instructions for, yes no or rearrange. I replied yes by text -all done and reminder sent the day before. It can be done just needs better communications and better systems.

The eye clinic I attend have twice sent me an appointment for 3pm. However, the lovely nurse reminds me each time, to ignore the time and come anytime after 9am

Slightly off topic, I sat with H for an hour and a half yesterday at local hospital waiting for blood test. (The operate a 'take a number' system) Out of boredom I read the test request form. It was dated 29th May and GP had written 3 mths across the top. Dear H the begining of August is not 3 mths from 29th May

Hagridnan, apologies if I have, inadvertantly, confused you. Re, the bank, that was a completely different matter.
I have had a call back from the hospital, and that matter has been resolved, no tests needed.
But, as to the bank, I popped in yesterday to ask for help. The girl I spoke to, was very brusque and off hand. So I went in again this morning. I needed help re Internet banking. There were only two assistants, both fully booked with appointments, and then the counter clerks. I was directed to the in bank computer, and phoned the help line. I think I have got it sorted now, but am awaiting a phone call. To make matters worse, the bank was very noisy, the phone reception was terribly scratchy and the two people I spoke to had very foreign accents, that took a while to tune in to. When at work, I was good at tuning into accents, as the majority of parents phoning up, were from abroad, and I got used to it. But now, being retired for 15 years, the knack has faded.
Gillbob, how is your DH, I know he is a workaholic, has he slowed down?

Update to hospital appointment. Yesterday I received two letters from the hospital. The first one I opened contained the expected replacement letter, appointment for same date and time, no tests needed. The second one was a letter cancelling the appointment all together. They were both sent first class, and written on the same date!! Accordingly I now have to expect another letter within four days.

I get the appointment - and then a change some weeks later. However it is not accompanied by an additional prescription even though I will have run out by the time of the new appointment. I'm not meant to stop my medication until I've had a consultation. This means I have to faff around writing a letter requesting a prescription - again!!!! This is not the first time.

The very best ‘mess up’ we have had was the surgeon ringing to find out why my husband was not on the operating table! He thought that H had chickened out, actually we hadn’t had the letter but someone else had had all the tests etc the day before

I always have blood tests done at the surgery as a matter of routine before a hospital visit. I don't even ask the dr, just book them. The results come up on the computer and the hospital, if local can access them so I don't even go and get a print out. I must say that at my most recent yearly hospital visit I was asked how I was coping with my sickle cell disease which as far as I know I don't have and I am the wrong ethnic group to get it. Does make me wonder what other mistakes are on my records.

When my brother was a little boy of five he suffered a lot of sore throats. The doctor put him on the list to have his tonsils out. Guess when he got the letter to go? When he was 16! By then he'd grown out of the sore throats. Just shows, nothing has changed since the 1950's.

I was put on a waiting list to have my tonsils out when I was 5, inishowen, and never got the call. Do you think they’ve forgotten me?

Auntieflo why did you go to the high street bank about internet bank it’s my understanding they are quite different Ring the phone line or instigate a phone or live chat from your living room if there’s a problem I ve found them very helpful in the past
Sickle cell disease is easily diagnosed with a blood test and you don’t necessarily have to be of a noticible ethnic group you could have a great grand parent who had an unknown ethnic heritage and passed a carrier gene down the line or do you mean you have never been tested for sickle cell and they were just asking a random question that was nothing to do with you ?

Barmyoldbat. The NHS is stretched to its limits and that applies to the admin side just as much. Not an excuse for the way many of us are treated and comes to mind left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing which went down like a lead balloon when I put this opinion to my local GP surgery following my own experience.

Private hospitals are sometimes no better when it comes to a mix-up. I had been home for a few days (following orthopaedic surgery), when I had a phone call asking me to come and collect antibiotics “which I needed after my recent gynae procedure”. I explained I hadn’t had a gynae procedure, and she had the wrong person. She insisted she hadn’t! What can you do?

Last year I had a nightmare NHS experience which culminated by me having surgery twice. When I came back after Christmas, I found an appointment letter with a mid-January date - this was for a second post-op check up. Impressed by their promptness, I had to cancel and re-arrange. I then received, by post, a second appt letter identical to the first. I then checked the date - it was for 2019!!!

I've had a lot to do with hospitals over the last six years as I've had bowel cancer and my husband prostate cancer. All through the medical treatment has been first class in every respect. In contrast the Admin dept have been appalling. Wrong information, muddled appointments, surly attitudes on the phone etc etc. In my opinion where the NHS is failing is with the Admin depts not with doctors or nurses etc.

Auntiflo, I find the best way to sort problems out with many companies is to use the live chat system via their website. I usually get an immediate response and am able to explain the issues quickly to get the problem resolved. I sometimes keep a screen shot of the conversation if I feel there might be further complications. It is much quicker than hanging on in a queue on the phone! I would only call into my bank for anything other then a simple transaction after making an appointment as the counter clerks do not usually have the necessary knowledge or time to do anything complicated. Also by making an appointment, they usually take you to a private area which I prefer.

Good luck with sorting it out.

The appointments system is dreadful - my GS has on waking epilepsy, he was doing very well on his medication they decided to take him off it and see if he was still having fits. Three weeks later he had a severe fit on waking, so he was put straight back on his tablets. Daughter asked for him to be referred back to his specialist, GP said they would. Daughter then received four letters, all with different appointment dates/times. When she rang she was told to go with the last one which fell in the week we are on holiday (she had told the GP that we were away that week). Daughter rang up the appointments team and they said they would reschedule, in September! Two days later a letter came from the Consultant to say GS had failed to attend his appointment! Needless to say it was one of the earlier three dates daughter had been told to ignore. Back on the phone she went and, after being passed between several operators she was told the September appointment still held and that the issue had been that the original Consultant had retired unexpectedly and there had been issues in transferring his diary over to his replacement. Then a letter arrived saying GD had missed her appointment (with a different Consultant) - we hadn't even had a letter advising that she had been given an appointment! The whole system seems to be in mess.