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

Thanks for oh yes! And if you call back straight away, they are not available!

The sooner the better would be great

Its good to keep good timing and be confident in the change. Wasted time cannot be taken back. Be confident, i am sure everything you go well for you.

My mum had an appointment for cateract and glaucoma related surgery. Had to cancel as she came down with a heavy cold. Was told if she cancelled another she’d be taken off the list, disgraceful, what is she meant to do? Turn up ill for eye surgery under local anaesthetic and sneezing and coughing while trying to stay still?

The other thing they do with telephone appointments:
You sit quietly all day next to your landline and holding your mobile phone. You can't be certain which one they will ring.
The landline rings once and as you pick it up they end the call.
You are recorded as having not been available.

In fairness departments shouldn’t have to check whether people can still attend. Thats the patients job. DNAs (dis not attends) cost the NHS a great deal of money.

OP, not trying to be rude, but it would really help if you only used a question mark at the end of a sentence where you are asking an actual question, rather than when you are making a statement.

Yes, I’d have got a taxi rather than waste an appointment.

I had a letter about missing a therapy appointment with no notice.
I was inpatient at the time, and my therapy sessions were on the same site as the ward I was on, so I could still attend (I was there for 6 weeks). I missed one session because I was restrained, and a letter was sent to my house, that I was not staying in.

I recently had to cancel an appointment on the day. It was not at our local hospital but one in the county town.

I had just come out of hospital and there's no way I could have walked to the bus stop without risking collapsing

Is that good enough for you?

At the end of July, I had multiple texts and emails reminding me to be available for a phone call and saying each missed appointment costs £150.

No-one called. When I rang themto query, they rescheduled it to today.

Exactly the same thing happened today...

Oh my 🥺.
Well death or a worsening condition may be a result in not showing up.

My friend cannot leave the house without a bottle of vodka because of her nerves - can you imagine the sheer difficulty for her friends and family to manage - and you're just an employee that has to deal with the paperwork - for pay.

For your own sanity, please look for something else ❤️.

That isn't always feasible though. As a clinician I schedule my specialist clinic as I know how long each patient will take, from between 15 and 60 minutes. Certain activities have to come before others in the schedule for clinical reasons, some need extra staff so these have to be put at times when these extra staff are available, its a logistical nightmare. Patients are asked to note any days they will be away by the referrer before the referral gets to me, but once scheduled, admin cannot easily reschedule it based on patients calling in.

Do you not get text reminders? We send out appts a month prior, a text 2 weeks before and a phone call reminder a week before, in an effort to reduce missed appointments. Not for our benefit - it's extra work for us- but to try to reduce overall wait times for all

I wouldn’t worry. Most of the admin staff in my trust are being coerced into taking voluntary redundancy and the ones that are left are so stressed they are leaving or retiring early.
We’re getting AI systems in now to replace most of us so you’ll only have computers and robots to hurl your vitriol at. All the receptionists are being replaced by digital booking in desks and the consultants are dictating letters transcribed by AI so you won’t have to deal with “incompetent” admin staff for much longer 👍🏻

I have noticed that letters posted from a BA3 (Bath) postcode take forever to get delivered. This is the NHS central letter hub Yet if get letters from the hospitals, its 2 days.

The NHS app has my minor surgery in 11 days time listed on there. But at the wrong location. The department moved from the main hospital to the first floor of a medical centre about three quarters of a mile away at the beginning of this year. The NHS trust needs to contact the NHS app dept to update their details

This is a good point. None of my oncology stuff appears on the NHS app at all. Fortunately I can make the next appointment at the desk when leaving the last one ( luckily on 6 mths check ups now ,) and put it directly into my phone.

I have at different times been involved with commissioning and the "internal market" in the NHS but I don't know exactly how hospital services are funded and commissioned these days.

I suppose it's possible that the local Clinical Commissioning Group or Integrated Care Board can withold funding if a trust cancels an appointment on the day, but I think they'd have to be serial offenders and that there would be a pretty generous threshhold for cancellations before there were any financial consequences

If the system was efficient you might have half a point. But it isn't. Often notification of an appointment isn't received in good time (if it arrives before the appointment at all). It is also ridiculous that so many clinics won't make an appointment for you on the phone at which point you could say whether the given date and time is manageable. Instead they insist on mailing out an appointment and then you're stuck in the first scenario. Only now you could be discharged back to your GP too.

That's incredibly ignorant.

Those are presumably the numbers given on the letters (and often on hospital websites too) that frequently go unanswered.

This comment makes me think you aren't well suited to a job in the NHS. Are you aware of the NHS core values?

@SaltAirAndTheRust I’ve never had a text or a phone call. I also can’t see appointments or letters on the app.

ive looked.

My OH gets no messages/texts/notifications from his oncology department for appointments etc. He gets them for GP appointments and it's hit and miss whether he gets them for x-rays, scans, etc. depending on the dept. The oncology ones don't appear on the NHS app either, nor do oncology dept blood test results etc.

I’ve tried all afternoon to get through. The phone was never answered and there was no answer machine.

So what is your takeaway from this? I know from personal experience that admin mistakes are all too common and this problem needs addressing.

Im a nice, understanding, polite person but I might not have been on the occasions when a very stressful situation has been exacerbated by admin errors. Som3 others I’ve seen have let rip at staff for far less than I’ve personally experienced!

It must waste money too.