To think that if you take time off work and turn up for a hospital appointment in plenty of time, you should really be seen and nit have to go back another day?!?!

[trixymalixy]

Not to mention the fact that this appointment had already been rescheduled once for the consultant's holiday, and I have had to work 12 hour days this week and start work at 6 this morning in order to make it as it is the only week in the year I could not take holiday. The next appointment they could give DS was March had I cancelled it.

Then the consultant who had fucked up, slunk off to let the nurses deal with the fallout and tell me that the ward was shut!

This was despite me expressing concern least half an hour earlier about the late running of the clinic because I was certain the ward shut at 5. Oh no they said, the ward doesn't shut at 5 .

So angry!!

Hospital appointments can be a joke, when I was an outpatient at the Eye Hospital I realised that they give several people the same appointment "time" and then you all queue up outside a series of doors to see whatever consultant is available first "post office counter" style, not the named one on your notes. Explaining the history took longer than the treatment.

They also have you changing waiting rooms about three times to make it feel like you're moving forward.

I had to do this every four weeks for six months with two children under four to occupy, it always took an hour to be seen even with the first appointment of the day, and I never saw the same consultant twice.

I am grateful to be cured of my eye condition but in part that was in spite of the system - I was allowed to continue a treatment longer than NICE say purely because it wasn't picked up on in the disorganisation and as it happened I'm certain the extra time made the difference to me.

So I understand your frustration at least. Hope you can be seen soon.

This has happened to me. I wrote a polite but stern letter the hospital trust's chief excecutive and gave her chapter and verse about the state of the clinic, and asked her what was she going to do about expediting another appointment a.s.a.p. in a clinic that wasn't over-booked, under-staffed and under-resourced.

They did actually sort it out.

I agree, complain long and loud to the chief executive.

I'd CC in PALS and your MP as well for good measure because that is appalling behaviour.

I am currently composing a letter. I will have to edit it once I have calmed down a bit!!

The nurses were amazing tbh and rushed around trying to find a key to the ward to do the tests so we didn't have to come back, but the cupboards were also locked sobthey couldn't get the stuff they needed.

I have been through the nhs system a little lately for the first time, with my DH who needed various scans for a shoulder problem. The amount of times they give you an appointment and then you show up on time only to have to wait sometimes two hours to get seen! I just don't get it, if they give you an appt why don't they stick to it? I mean I understand if they had emergencies but this seems to be the case every bloody time.

Also the last time I went to the GP I had an appt at 1pm, so I get there at ten to, wait till half past then only to see my doctor wander in, from lunch presumably. Why give me an appt if he's not even there?

The annoying thing is, I am proud of the fact that we have an NHS and would hate to see it go, but sometimes it just seems like it doesn't work very well, sadly.

The appointment was for 3.30, we were there at 3.20. What annoyed me was that they saw some people who had come back with test results before us, whereas if they had used some sense realised that the clinic was running way over and saw us first as we were the last appointment, they could then have talked to the people about their results while DS was being tested and then everyone could have been seen. Too much to ask for some common sense to be used though!

If there was no reason for the clinic running then you are not being unreasonable.

I have been at clinics before when they have announced things are running late because of an emergency on the ward and given people the chance to change appointments or wait which is fair enough.

Smethwitch, was this the eye hospital at the JR? I had exactly the same experience. Had to leave after waiting long past my appointment time as couldn't hang on any longer. I was sitting with a number of similarly disgruntled patients when we overheard a nurse say to one of her colleagues that 'the natives were restless'. Oh, how we laughed.

Not that I know of Sirzy, there was no apologynfor the clinic running late. There was no reason for us not to be seen other than mis-management and seeing people coming back with test results before us when we had not even been seen once. That's what I think the problem was from the and the " you mean you've not been seen at all yet!!" from the nurse.

YADNBU. From every encounter I or my family have had with NHS hospitals it is clear that there is a consistent culture of putting no value whatsoever on other people's time when it comes to running clinics.

My grandmother is currently being treated for oesophageal cancer and she has been constantly messed around by the hospital: appointments cancelled at the last moment (on the day!) because the consultant goes on holiday, you end up sitting in the clinic all day when you were supposed to have an appointment in the morning, etc etc. It just never stops. Now, this is all very well for my grandmother, because my parents don't work and can ferry her around all the time and be very flexible. But what are you supposed to do if you have to work, or pick up children from school, or look after elderly parents? In one of the clinics she was at, she and other people in their 80s were left waiting all day and none of them were mobile enough to walk down to the canteen and get something to eat or drink. My parents ended up running around getting drinks for everyone and helping one very old man go to the loo.

Now I don't object to doctors taking holiday etc. In fact I don't want to be treated by a doctor or nurse who is stressed out and hasn't had enough holiday. But in private industry everything like that has to booked well in advance so that it can be planned around. Why should the NHS be any different? They MUST know that there are problems with hospital clinics, but they expect everyone to put up with it and be grateful.

To be fair fair, a last minute day taken as "holiday" will very rarely be an actual holiday and more likely a case of something happening in there personal life. As much of an inconvenience as it is drs are still humans who have family crisis!

The one that sticks in my mind was an appointment DS had with his paediatrician. It was changed several times and when another letter came there seemed something familiar about it; I got his appointment card out and found that we had the original one back again!
When the day arrived, we were just leaving when the postie came. There were four hospital letters and my heart sank; I quickly opened them as I didn't want an unneccessary trip to the hospital and they were all reminding me of that day's appontment.

YANBU. Go through the hospital's PALS and tell them as they don't know when things go wrong unless people tell them. Ask them for an explanation and get them to sort out another appointment for you.

At least you all take your health seriously and turn up and want health care.

The client group I deal with are famous for not attending, or turning up at the wrong time or on the wrong day even and I can be sat there for 2 hours waiting for a pt to bother to turn up.

Its the pts that do this that cause problems for everyone else ie the trend to overbook clinics in case some don't attend.

On the other hand: Drs go sick, have emergencies on the ward and have to leave clinic / turn up late, not realise that they have to book A/L 6 weeks in advance so appts get cancelled at the last minute, start the pm clinic late because their morning clinic over ran by an hour because more pts turned up with complications than they had bargined for, plan to go to a conference and forget to cancel outpatients.

The list is endless. Some of them get hauled over the coals for it, but not enough.

I agree about complaining politely and involving PALS.

Nightowl - the GP may have come back from lunch hour, but a lunch hour spent in a meeting or doing a home visit etc and which overran.

Sirzy, yes, it could be a personal problem

However an apology costs nothing