Difficult work situation. What would you do?

[Thunderface]

I'm relatively new in a clerical role. I recently helped out by setting up some appointments (not my usual role) as we were short staffed. I had informed the person who instructed me to book people in that we hadn't confirmed someone to see these people on that date and that the person who would most likely do it was on holiday and couldn't be contacted.
She assured me that this person would be back from holiday and as it was on their roster they would almost definitely do it. One of the people I booked in had previously had an appointment postponed and was quite angry about it.
Now the person is back from leave and has said there is a scheduling conflict and can't do it.
The person who instructed me is now on leave and I am left with the mess.
I really do not want to ring and cancel people at short notice, particularly the person I know will be justifiably annoyed.
What would you do?
Should I contact the person who insisted I make the bookings. There might be someone else who could take the appointments but I'm not familiar enough to know who and I'm not really in a decision making capacity to cancel the whole thing anyway.

These are really sensible questions, and you should be asking them to your supervisor at work. You're not being silly; this is something you need to know.

I'm the only one here today so no one at all to advise me. This job has been a mess from the start, thrown in at the deep end, minimal 'training' and very little support.

I would contact the person who is back from leave stating that the person who is now on leave assured you that this booking would be fine and that the person it’s for has already been rescheduled before.

Tell them you’re new to the role and don’t have the experience to know if there’s someone else who would be available, ask them who you should contact.

Thanks for the replies.
Herein lies the problem. The person back from leave is many, many echelons above me. (Surgeon)
I don't have direct access and they wouldn't deal with questions about staffing anyway so I can't ask for help in that direction.
I'll have to contact the person on leave now I think.

Yes, contact the person on leave and ask them what to do. They created the problem.

You say you were 'instructed' by person now on leave to make these appointments - is this person in a supervisory role above you? You also say you were 'helping out' - did you volunteer or were you approached to assist (again - by someone in a supervisory capacity in which case you were following orders, or by someone of the same grade in which case it might be a 'favour'?)

Where is your line manager in all this - this sounds like one for them, and if that person is the person now on leave can you take it to their line manager?

This sounds exactly like my experience as a booking clerk in my local hospital.
The environment was one of nobody would take ownership of problems and nobody worked together to find a solution. Blame was always placed on the low level admin staff and was just an accepted part of the role.

I had a similar situation where there was a conflict with bookings between two surgeons - when i explained to my supervisor they spent an hour going over email chains trying to prove that i had been made aware of this previously (i hadn't) so i put my big girl pants on and emailed the two surgeons involved directly explaining the situation and told them to decide between themselves asap who would take the list and i would then make the cancellation phone calls.
My supervisor wasn't overly impressed but i had the respect of the surgeons at that point

@ETgo That's it exactly. I have emails pointing out where the gap in the schedule is but no one did anything when I told them and now I have the mess to deal with.

If anyone has a chocolate teapot they could loan me it would be of more use than my line manager. He is based elsewhere and knows almost nothing about the day to day here and doesn't want to know.

Is there nobody else in a similar role to you who could give some advice? There must be someone who has been there for longer who understands the day to day workings and can help you work out a way forward? Otherwise, I would just do as instructed and reschedule the appointments, some people will be annoyed but doesn’t seem there is much else you can do.

Does the “back from leave” surgeon have a PA you can speak to?

I contacted the person on leave and they told me to go ahead and cancel. They weren't too pleased to hear from me but i had no real choice.
Most people were understanding but I hated having to cancel with less than 24 hours notice.
It's the worst job I've ever had.