To think this needs fixing (NHS)

This is why whenever I hear suggestions of fining people for missing appointments I think, good luck figuring out who "deserves" to be fined and who was a victim of poor admin or an inability to cancel an appointment.

Bet the poor man will get a snotty automated letter too.

I’ve been written to and told I didn’t attend an appointment and referred back to my GP, when I actually turned up for the appointment and I still have the check-in ticket to prove it.

The consultant didn’t like the fact that I collapsed in the waiting room outside his office after waiting in an overheated, overcrowded corridor (he was by then running 90 minutes late), and two nurses attended to me and had me taken to A&E.

His gastroenterology clinic has now been taken over by a decent service that’s privately contracted by the NHS in order to clear the waiting lists. We’re talking diagnostic tests, treatments, follow-ups, the lot.

The staff are now pleasant and efficient and you get reminders and a telephone call on the morning of the appointment to check you’re able to get there. The NHS used to be like this. One bloke somehow had a disproportionately negative effect on a whole department. And fiddled the DNA stats to blame his patients till he couldn’t get away with it any longer.

I used to schedule all my maternity appointments just after the lunch break and I would book the first appointment. Repeatedly reminded not to be late, never ever did the clinic open or run on time. Sometimes my appointment was 1hr plus late.

Yeah it should be much easier to speak to a doctor's receptionist or a direct department without all of the bloody bureaucracy

Fully agree. I have seen plenty of personal examples where the fault is not the patient's at all.
My GP used to have a board with how many appointments had been missed the previous month. Well, I always looked at it, looked at the jammed packed waiting room and thought, well it makes zero sense! They already have far too many appointments booked at any time I come here, how is that they still had another 10 or so that did not turn up! It always puzzled me and I know now all of this has to do with their system inefficiency. Both GPs and NHS need that sorted, indeed.

It's such an inefficient system, I phoned to reschedule & received confirmation of rescheduling. I then got put to the back of the list for missing appointment & not rescheduling. Took numerous calls to sort it out.

Had another appointment, received a letter & a text to say "DO NOT COME TO HOSPITAL, THIS IS A PHONE APT". Day off the appointment the consultant phones and says why aren't you here 🙄😆

Absolutely, OP. It is impossible to cancel/rearrange a lot of appointments at my local (huge) hospital because the designated phone number rings out; and the digital service doesn’t work.

I’ve had to rearrange through PALS before now.

The nhs is a huge mess of waste, inefficiency and admin nightmare. We should stop just throwing more money into it without guarantees to reform and reduce waste and inefficiency.