Royal Mail causing people to miss important medical appointments.

[ConcernedOfSussex]

I missed a breast screening appointment last week. I was unaware I even had an appointment. I phoned and they said it was usually due to letters not being delivered. Same happened to partners physio appointment. Royal Mail are truly shite. Time for the NHS to phone or text instead.

I get my letters sent through the NHS app. Although, I've had 2 medical appointment letters in the past 3 weeks and both arrived in the mail a couple of days after I got them in the app

I had my letters sent to me digitally on the NHS app as well as paper format.

Why don't they use email?! You should be able to get all NHS letters on the app though right? All mine do and I never set anything up that I remember.

They do send text messages and if you have the NHS app with notifications turned on, appointments will show up that way too.

My husband waited 18 for his prostate op. Eventually we made a GP appointment to ask why it was taking so long only to find out he'd been removed from the list because they'd sent a letter telling him to come in for pre-op blood tests which we'd never received so had not answered so had been removed from the list!

I get mine on the app, but they send a paper copy too. I’ve received the paper letter after my appointment date a few times now. Our post is shocking. We live in a city too, it’s not as though we’re out in the sticks.

Not always RM fault. We got back from a hospital appointment last Monday to find the appointment letter through the letterbox, postmarked on the Friday, but letter dated a week earlier. Sometimes, it's the hospital "mail room" that are slow to actually get the letters dispatched.

Also got a copy of a consultant's letter to DH's GP, where at the top it said "dictated on...." and on the next line "printed on......" where the dates were three weeks apart, so three weeks to type a letter after it had been dictated.

I am in Scotland, no NHS app, and I agree, the sending of letters is a liability.Royal Mail seem to have improved here recently, but for a while it was very hit or miss.

That said the NHS could do a lot to lower costs and improve communication if they went digital.

It’ll be the hospital not typing them up and posting them in time, my local hospital often has a back log of a few weeks for letter writing. They really need to start texting like another hospital I use does.

Always get mine through the app.

And sometimes separately by text too.

I'm not surprised. It took a card posted 75 miles away a full 10 days to get to Glasgow. OK, second class, but still. I recently had a mammogram, they were happy to rearrange and confirm rearranged appointments by text, but not make initial appointments or send results.

And before anyone pipes up with "just check the app!" we don't have a NHS app in Scotland.

Royal Mail are a shambles. Our regular postman has been off sick. We didn't get any post for 3 weeks because they said they were short staffed and couldn't get anyone to cover. After complaining they got a temporary postman who posted letters to the wrong addresses, completely different roads. My neighbour went out to give him the letters back and he just shrugged and said he was behind on his round and refused to take them back, so she ended up delivering them.

Kids dont have the app though

We used to have nice polite postmen who delivered first thing every morning. Seems like a different world , doesn't it.

It does seem mad (and expensive, I'd have thought) to do so much by mail when it really isn't reliable anymore. Also, I think quite a lot of younger people don't open mail regularly.

It might have made sense 10+ years ago when a lot of patients who are OAPs may not have been tech savvy by I think the vast majority of people can deal with texts or emails now. DH has missed appointments because of letters that don't turn up - also in one case he was waiting on 3 minor things from the NHS and he got a letter for an appointment with no indication which thing it was for, which was a tad unhelpful.

I'm old enough to remember first post around 7.30am and then second post about lunchtime.

Now it takes 10 days to send a second class card 75 miles.

You can register your child under your name on the app, and you then can see their profile and messages too

I never rely on paper letters! I would miss everything! I have the NHS app where they have exact copies of any letter sent to you, and they also text me.

I've got the NHS app. Nothing on there.

We only seem to get post when there's a junk mail shot.
Ne..Scotland.

I agree with you - but - they should also send you copies of the letters digitally on the NHS app and also send you a text message. If they're not, ask your GP about this and make sure they have a current mobile phone number attached to your medical records (for some reason the NHS had a completely different phone number for me 🤷‍♀️).

It is just too variable. I get some by text, some by a link in a text, some by email, some by the app, some a random mix, sometimes a text to tell me I have a message in the app. And then sometimes none of them.

It blows my mind that each of these systems has been separately developed and don’t seem to be linked.

If you have complex health stuff with lots of appointments it must be a nightmare.

I got a letter and a text. But why don't they do what they do for cervical screening and let you make your own appointment? What's the point of sending out random dates. The chances of someone being able to make it are slim if they work or have other commitments. They don't make it easy to cancel/change, either.

Yes, the NHS need to stop this printed-out on 4 pieces of paper shite. Half the time it doesn't arrive on time and/or at the correct address.

I have told the local hospital a billion times to please stop posting letters, they get delivered to neighbours. I have the app and patient portal, why can't they post the things there instead?

Such a mammoth waste of money. Stuck in 1952.

All my NHS stuff has been text recently (for hospital appointments etc) but I'm not yet old enough for breast scans, so I wonder if they still use paper mail for this? To be fair, the texts I was sent had a link to book appointments, so if they were sent to people who don't have smartphones, I'm not sure what they'd do (as texting back wasn't an option).
If they are sending letters though, they need to send them earlier.