NHS rule about being late?

In the OP it is stated that he admitted to being 5 minutes late. So it was probably later.

Call the manager. This is not acceptable. If they discharge him because of this he will have another long wait. Complain. It is someone being a jobsworth. I work in the NHS and these departments do not have this ruling.

He was a minute late. I think his incomplete appointment could've accommodated the missing minute.

I hate that people treat young people like this! Because they know they won’t advocate for themselves. I once got ripped a new bum hole on here for saying I went to the doctors with my 18 year old! But this is why I did because they haven’t acquired the skills to deal with lying, stick-up-their-arse receptionists on a power trip! Of course he shouldn’t have been late and that’s a life lesson. However, if he hadn’t been called in and they were running 5+ mins late with appts (as they almost always are) then of course they should still see him. I think she was lying. You could complain to PALS, from the angle that you are questioning the validity of her claim of anyone who is 1 minute late will have their appt cancelled, not from the point of view of being seen if you’re late because of course sometimes you won’t.

Absolutely ridiculous. Please complain op, this jobsworth needs a bollocking.

Always amuses me how so many in the nhs have crap time management yet have such high expectations of patients.

So, did you want your son to have a rushed incomplete appointment that didn't assess him properly? Or did you want every patient after him to have to wait around?

It's ridiculous. I've never had an appointment not run late. I had one for my DS at 8.30am last year, I thought surely we will get in on time for this one. Nope, half hour late. If they can't keep to their own appointment times, a late comer really isn't going to mess up the schedules. It's probably an easy way for them to catch up and get finished a bit earlier though!

Where is the respect for the NHS staff?

That's certainly the way I was brought up. And you always calculate some time for getting lost into your travel time to a new location.

But I find people who defend lateness are often pretty arrogant about protecting their time at someone else's expense.

If you’re not 15 minutes early, you’re late

Well just would just have to arrive 5 minutes late as well. Or just move the time of the first appointment forward 5 minutes and then would be back to where they should be.

I’d write to PALS. While I understand they might need some kind of rule, 1 minute seems crazy. Was there anything in the appointment letter about this?

Except for the staff.

people should aim to arrive 5 minutes early, so they’re ready.

This unfortunately is the reality if you have an unlucky day with lots of hold ups in your clinic.

no one ever thanks you for staying late to get things done on your own time. They just complain to PALS if your clinic runs late.

If you have been held up 2-3 times already, you can have a backlog of non-clinical work to do - note writing, exercise plans, referrals to send - because you of course leave this stuff til later if you’re running late so that your next patient isn’t waiting even longer while you sit writing notes. I’m saying that in this context if another patient is then late, which might add to this backlog, that is why they may then get turned away. I regularly end up staying late to get this work done because I don’t like to leave my patients waiting past their appointment time unless it’s totally unavoidable.

Im not defending what happened to the OPs son, I think it’s really stupid, and I would have seen him. I’m just trying to offer a perspective of what it’s like to run an outpatient clinic with 10-12 back to back patients and no breathing space for when things start later or take longer than expected - sometimes the pressure builds and then something unfair like this happens.

it also could have been admin staff 🤷🏼

Yeah I tend to agree. No one’s time is more important than someone else’s and being late is rude no matter the excuse.

That said, they should have tried to fit your son in.

I’m surprised they didn’t communicate their late policy.

Unfortunately your son was late and they have rules even if you don’t agree the issue isn’t that they won’t budge it’s that your son was late.

Put in a complaint for that receptionist, how awful! My dentists appt’s twice I was seen 40mins after my actual appointment time! I used to get physio done and was never seen on time, it’s ok for the to be very late but can’t give us abit of grace

We allow 5 mins of a 15 minute appt.
I used to ‘squeeze them in’ or ‘see at the end’ and quite frankly I got fed up of bulllshit excuses and ungrateful patients and most importantly running late and giving up my family time for the NHS.

Now I’m strict and I’m known for coming to the waiting room and asking the bolshy, ‘I’m always made to wait’ (no your fecking not and how ironic you can’t seee why!!!) patient who demands to be seen, which patient they wish me to cancel so they can have two slots?!

I work for the NHS and used to see patients at allocated times. I’d give about 15 to 20 minutes grace for late running buses, parking problems, trouble finding the department etc.

But not adult enough to allow extra time.

Everybody knows that hospitals are notoriously difficult to find your way around. Some just don’t have enough parking and you need to park somewhere outside the hospital, get someone to give you a lift or go by public transport. You still need to get to your appointment with time to spare. I have often heard 10 mins early mentioned.

I don’t know, the OP said he is very responsible and I think the parent is the best judge of that. He is almost an adult, and it is maybe good that he is independent.

I would definitely take up with the hospital.
Last year I had a physio Appt at my local hospital which allowing for traffic is 15 mins from where I work -I left 45 mins to get there to allow for parking - I got there after 15 mins but couldn’t park - rang and spoke to a person to advise them I was driving around trying g to get a space and by the time I found a space and walked to clinic I was just under 5 mins late - I went in straight away and just had my usual 30 min slot less 5 mins which I completely understood

I would say it depends what the physio needed to do. Your son absolutely shouldn't make the next patient late, that's unfair. If they needed 30 minutes to do whatever they needed to do with him, then him turning up 5 minutes late meant they couldn't fit in what they needed to do, and so getting him to rebook is fair. Having said that, when I have had physio in the past, my appointment has been a series of exercises. Having a 25 minute appointment instead of a 30 minute one, would have mean missing off an exercise or two, which would have been much better than missing the whole session.

Goodness me yes. We send in incident forms on every single occasion this happens and its got worse not better. Its great when people come in early which a lot do because it means we can get them in before transport arrives and make some space.

1 minute is ridiculous. It took me 20 min to find the physio department at my local hospital (which was, i kid you not, in an out building right by the entrance! But the signs take you all the way through internal corridors, up and down 2 floors, to get to a building that is accessible from the road in 2 minutes...).

They need to allow at least 10 minutes. Particularly since I've never been to a hospital appointment that was actually running on time.