Hospital have discharged me for not attending an appointment

[DonaldLovesDoritos]

That I didn't know about!

Apparently I was sent a letter. Last week I received a letter that I was copied into, addressed to my GP.

It says many thanks for referring such and such a patient but she failed to attend and I won't be offering any further appointments at this time.

But I wasn't aware of this appointment. I certainly didn't get a letter Or a phone call, even.

This has happened before with Royal Mail deliveries. They've ended up at a different address down the road. But I have asked them already and they say they haven't received any letters for me.

What am I to do? I feel highly embarrassed and a CK.

But I'm in agony. The reason for the referral is worsening joint pain, joint fatigue and weakness with my muscles. No cause known yet. I am only young.

I feel so upset. Should I call my GP surgery and explain, even ask to speak to a GP and tell them I didn't get the appointment?

Call the number on the letter first then your GP. Explain and see what they say.

Ring hospital and tell them what's happened. Tell them you haven't had the letter and ask them what you should do. It might not be too late to have an appontment without re-referral.

Absolutely call them back and say you received no notification of an appointment, and that you expect to be rebooked as soon as possible. My friend had this, and then received the appointment notification letter 3 days later!

You’d expect a letter and usually a text reminder. It’s not your fault the system is rubbish.

I would definitely ring up the Hospital and explain your points, that does seem very unreasonable especially when they haven't heard you out.

I've had this happen before. One appointment was for a specialist at Kings in London, the letter arrived on the day of the appointment 2 hours before it was due! There was no way we could travel to London in this time so they wrote a rather rude letter discharging us.

I would ring up and politely explain you received no notification. Maybe ask to check your address and contact details too.

Unfortunately due to high numbers of appointments waster due to non-attendance, this is standard policy across many Trusts now.

I would give the Secretary a call ASAP in this case, as someone mentioned above it may not be too late. However in a clinic i used to work in, we would advise the patient to call the GP and re-send the referral by fax ASAP, and in the meantime make the next available appointment.

Good luck, I hope you get somewhere quickly

I've had a text reminder of an appointment when I had no letter so luckily I made it in. It's common policy to cross off non-attenders though.
Just ring them.

Thanks all 

I phoned my GP surgery. The receptionist was really helpful and she couldn't even find the referral/letter at first.

The reason for that was because I was referred by my GP to someone called Virgin Care. But Virgin Care themselves made the referral to the hospital rheumatology department as they deemed it necessary and their services unsuitable, so the initial referral to the hospital couldn't be found right away by my GP surgery. If that makes sense 

Anyway, she says they're extremely good at getting back. And says she will be explaining the situation and they should re refer themselves. Apparently I should hear by next week

The NHS routinely discharges people if they miss two appointments - even if you phone and cancel - and even if it's because you are ill!

My mum got discharged and had to wait all over again because she missed the first appointment slot because she was in hospital (she did ring to cancel) and then when it came to the second she had a stomach bug. She phoned to tell them, they obviously told her not to come, but refused to give her a 3rd appointment and discharged her so she went to the bottom of the waiting list. Seriously, no common sense applied.

running That's awful because our local hospital specifically says to refrain from coming into the hospital if you've had symptoms of sickness, a.k.a vomiting or diarrhoea recently

I'm still waiting on blood test forms from my Rheumatology nurse. From about 2 months ago. I chased and chased and eventually went in and got the bloody forms myself. Just what I needed mid arthritic flare up, an unnecessary trip to the hospital

I used to work in appointment bookings in a hospital.
Call the hospital. Be prepared to be passed around a few people and to be on the phone a while. You need to try to get either appointments booking (prepare to wait a long time) or the secretary for the consultant (see above). Their email may be on the letter, so you might be able to email them.

Explain you never had an appointment letter and they may be able to book you back in.

If you can't get through to anybody, go to PALs, who can contact the right person for you.

Our appointment letters are sent out by an external company and quite often don't get sent out (don't get me started on the total waste of money this service is) . We're never surprised when patients call and tell us they've 'missed' appointments they didn't know about.

The letter should have who the consultant was on it. Ring the hospital and ask to speak to that person's secretary. Be nice and polite with them, and 9 times out of 10 they'll find a way to get you booked back in again. In fact, that's why I send parents a "sorry not to see your child x, I'm not allowed to just given them another appt" letter, so that if there was a genuine reason, like not receiving the appt letter, then they can ring up, and it can get sorted.