To rant hear beacuse I'm too polite to rant at a receptionist?

[itiswhatitiswhatitis]

Got two letters in post yesterday. One with an outpatients appointment for ds1 and the second (dated the same as the first) telling me his appointment has been cancelled and could I please phone to reschedule

Just sat on hold for 15 minutes to be told "Oh yes we made the appoinment but had to cancel it as we can't make appointments that far in advance so you will get sent another appointment at a later date"

So why the fuck ask me to phone you then!?

I wouldn't have pointed out the spelling mistakes because it is rather rude and detracts from the Ops post. Saying that though hear and here are very basic words. It can and does annoy a lot of people when such simple spellings aren't known.

Your Op irked me itiswhatitis but you have behaved graciously with all the criticism and have explained you wouldn't actually have shouted.

So for you.

Bad spelling and grammar can have an impact on your life. I would reject an CV with a mistake such as that.

'an'?

AND THERe are a helluva lot of patients who simply Do Not Attend, which is probably why managers think it is a good idea to over book the clinics. Of course sods law when the clinics are booked to the gunnels no one DNA's!

Well done for not detracting from the original post by focussing on my rudimentary grasp of written English language Polly

Thanks for the wine Wowser.

I recently had a referral to the breast clinic. I got a text reminding me about my appointment a week before I got the letter telling me when my appointment was . And the letter only came the day before the appointment so if the text hadn't come through I would only have had a few hours to make arrangements. Mad eh?

It's a pain in the arse for you and a waste on their behalf of NHs resources - not only the initial fad of booking an appointment in error and cancelling it, printing andosting 2 useless letters and the woman to answer the phone in response to the useless letters - say it has cost the NHs £1.50 in postage, letters and time - multiply that across the organisation and it all adds up - it is just like the waste of time and resources across a lot of the public sector!

I knew the first response would be some arse pointing out the spelling mistake.....

op YANBU.

Smukogrig

The consultant doing the clinic may have been in theatre all night, or sorting out a seriously ill person on the ward or in A&E.

Consultants are hounded from pillar to post by managers these days.
The latest edict at my hospital is that all consultants must do a ward round at 8.00 every day. (A proper ward round takes at least half a day to do).
They must see more patients than ever, but clinics are only to be 4 hours per session as they will only be paid for 2 x 4 hour sessions per day.

Quite when the operations are supposed to get done is anybody's guess.
They can no longer have a secretary each as it is too expensive, so all correspondence is being outsourced to India. Then everyone complains about letters going astray or being full of mistakes.

In the middle of all that they are supposed to be teaching the juniors and attending meetings to fight for cash to keep their department running.

It is mad.

Actually the consultant doesn't book the appointment.
The appointments department computer person does that.
Within very strict rules about which the consultant is not allowed to voice an opinion.

You'll probably get a letter telling you to phone them so they can apologise for sending the letter cancelling the appointment letter. Followed by a letter telling you not to phone after all because they're far too busy trying to book an appointment for you that is in the future but not too far in the future.

I think we may go to the same hospital. I never got a 2nd letter. Attended the hospital, was told it had been cancelled and got the rigmarole about no appointments so far in advance so I complained. I got an apology and my parking ticket validated so I didn't have to pay the eyewatering parking charge. YANBU but I think you would have been better off to have made a complaint.

Consultants love it when patients complain in writing, because they have to read all the letters, comment on the complaint, and send it back to the big chief person.
My boss always writes things like;
"I completely agree with this patient, what is your management team going to do to solve this?"

Good point well made, Atticus

The receptionists at our dentist could not smile if they tried. They put you off going! The doctor has a touch screen now , so i can book in without having to look at those miserable women either. People seem very fed up everywhere. Sorry you had hassle.

'Good point well made, Atticus'

The point about spelling mistakes windchime?

Hate to tell you, but you spelt Attitcus' name incorrectly. How amusing.

Awfully, never has a name suited a person so much !!!

I was referred for a hospital appointment several weeks ago. Was told that if I hadn't heard from the hospital within 3 weeks I should call the person who referred me as I needed to be seen sooner rather than later.

Three weeks to the day I get a phone call from someone asking me whether I want to attend a clinic in my town or travel to one of a choice of clinics in several other towns quite some distance away.

A couple of weeks later I receive a letter telling me that I have opted to be treated at the clinic in my town and, because the appointment is urgent, I will receive an appointment in about three months.

Well, all the faffing around with phone calls and letters has already wasted over a month so it's a good job my appointment is only urgent and not extremely urgent.

Seems to me that a lot of the things that the NHS does seems to be in order to get patients' names off waiting lists and take up time by making appointments that are later cancelled, sending pointless letters out and making unnecessary phones calls.

The whole system is cumbersome and inefficient. It's frustrating for the patients and must be equally frustrating for the people who have to administer it.

Ffs it really pisses me off how people go on about drs/dental receptionists. Agree with Fanjo.

This morning I had someone come in two hours after their doctors appt because 'they got distracted' and moan that I couldn't rebook them in for three weeks. I had someone else turn up forty minutes late and refuse to leave they just loitered outside the doctors door until they'd finished their clinic. Lots of people are really self centred.

Op it sounds like a system error, annoying but happens.

I know it's a system error Spotty hence why I had a whinge about it hear (sorry can't resist) and not directly at the receptionist.

It's more than annoying though because it is a waste of NHS time, money and resources. Very frustrating for the receptionist too I'm sure.

Oh I know you weren't blaming the receptionist, it was other posters. It's a difficult job for shit money but I really enjoy it

Spotty I'm sure if receptionist ran the NHS it would be a much more efficient service!