To think that if you cancel on the day with the NHS, you should be put to the bottom of the list?

Did you miss that they aren't being sent on time?

@ErinBell01 I was referred in January for a gynae appointment. Last time I didn't receive the appointment letter, just a stroppy you didn't attend. So having read this thread yesterday I took it upon myself to phone up today. Yes I'm on the list for an appointment, I should get a letter in 10 weeks with an appointment for a month after that. I will give it 12 weeks and then I am phoning up to check.

My husband is three weeks post op and still hasn't received his appointment letter! I made him phone up to see if he had an appointment and they told him the date and time over the phone. It was only because he had the same op last year that he knew the procedure!

The text thing happens a fair bit and is hard when you don’t know what appointment is for. It is almost impossible to find out, no matter how much time you spend on hold and how many messages you leave.

Wow! Lets hope your health holds up

I truly don't think they do understand. The culture of blaming patients is so strong, as evidenced by the overwhelming majority of posts by staff on this thread.

And what about when surgeries are cancelled last minute? People have had to organise days off and arrange childcare or transport and showed up early having not eaten anything and it’s not going ahead. You understand why people are angry don’t you?

Im a nurse working on an elective surgical ward, and where I work if we have a no show, they do go to the bottom of the list or in some cases taken off it all togther

I’d certainly agree that patients should attend appointments whenever possible, and that they should call to cancel when they can’t make the appointment, but I’ve had enough experience with appointment letters being late / non-existent to believe that no shows are always the patients fault.

Once we even got another patient’s appointment letter in with DC’s hospital appointment letter.
And we’ve had text reminders about appointments we hadn’t been previously informed about. Although at least the text reminder scenario gives you the opportunity to call and ask what’s going on. Assuming you can get through to someone on the other end of the line, of course!

Apology accepted, we all make mistakes ☺️

My Mother is 100 I can never tell how she is going to be on the day and I am afraid we have cancelled on the day because she wasn’t up to making the journey.

I think you're right, I knew I'd do it one day. Apologies x

When the NHS cancel on you, its most likely down to equipment failing or staff shortages. <bitter experience>

Not everybody has the NHS app . Not everyone has a smartphone. Twice I've had a breezy phonecall giving me an appt only to receive a letter confirming - a different time, a different day &, in one instance, a different place! Do I get to charge for my time wasted in sorting it out? My time & money is important too, I'm not just a piece of meat.

You shouldn’t have had to wait, the rules are 28 days after cancellation on the day. The hospital will have been fined heavily for not re dating you within 28 days not that it makes you feel much better.

What about when the NHS cancel on you? I waited 2 years for an operation. I was due in at 11am all ready to go, they rang and cancelled at 9am. I lost pay and had to wait months for a new date 😡

I had to cancel a scan on the day - in fact dh called for me as I’d just had a seizure. They were ‘off’ on the phone until he explained and I got an appt 3 weeks later. The 111 Dr that DH rang said I should go to the scan - j was half dead in bed!
Agree that cancelling or not turning up is not good practice and patients would be referred back to their GP or referring consultant - it usually says that in letters

You’ve got me mixed up with the OP there. I’ve been in the job 9 years!

Nor have I advocated for charging people for missing their surgery date baby!

The appointments system is flawed, we outsource the letters which is why they don’t always get out. Once they’ve gone to the system they are out of our control! They get cancelled for any numerous reasons but I can assure you the admin staff you all seem to be running down have absolutely no control over it!

Yeah, but does that mean I can get my lost train fares/hotel costs. Or the wages my daughter lost because had to drive me to an appointment that was cancelled on the day. No, I thought not.

I can go one better. I was once sent an appointment for a date that physically didn't exist think 32nd April or something 😂. I can't remember when the appointment was actually for on the live system.
When I got through to them, even the admin team saw the funny side (they could see the digital copy of the letter they'd sent) and rebooked me.

🙌🏻

Hey, aren't you the clever girl. Well, now you've been in the job for 10 minutes, perhaps you can explain why the overall appointment system is so shambolic? Almost all of the appointments I've had in the last two years have been cancelled & remade at financial loss to me. So it's a two way thing, baby. Should I be recouping my costs from the NHS ? By your reasoning, it would be fair enough!
PS - I wouldn't do it, of course because I'm not a shit even though I, too, have lots of O levels & an A level

Yes I do. But part of the problem is people just not turning up to appointments.

should be charged a cancellation fee every single time £50 unless they have a sick note/note from the aa whatever - proof!

drives me mad people do not care and cancel for stupid reasons

Have you listened to any of the people on here who have shared their experiences of not receiving appointment details in time, or being unable to contact departments in order to cancel, or do you just not believe them?

30 no shows indicates massive failures somewhere in the process. Plenty of us have had enough of the NHS blaming patients when their own shortcomings are so obvious.