Text telling me about a hospital appointment

[TiesThatBindMe]

Received a text yesterday along the lines of "We are expecting you for your appointment at XX hospital at 3pm on the 20th. If you do not attend it will cost the NHS £160. To cancel ring xxxxxxx number'.

The hospital mentioned is one I've been a patient at, but I am not aware of, nor have I received any letter regarding any outpatient appointment.

Even if it is legitimate, I don't know what department it's for! Do I just show up with some spurious text?

Does this sound dodgy to anyone bar myself?

I get that exact reminder for all of my eye hospital appointment reminders.

My local hospital send these texts making it clear that it costs the NHS £160 if you miss an appointment and includes a number to call. I've received it twice and both times I had appointments, can't remember if text came before or after the appointment letter but I definitely also had s letter. Maybe they sent the text to you instead of another patient by mistake?

Sounds like a mistake. Wouldn't you only get a hospital appointment as part of ongoing treatment or if referred by your GP, so you would know it was going to happen?

I'd ring on Monday before trekking there on Tuesday, in case someone else has given your number in error. Hopefully a letter will have gone to the right person and the text is just a reminder. It sounds like a good system - both DP and I have received letters about hospital appointments after the date or never at all - post on its own is not reliable enough so useful to have a back up, if they text the right person of course.

I always get a text reminder with that wording for hospital appointments. Maybe the letter went astray or it's a mistake. I would have thought it was genuine.

How strange. I got a text saying the exact same thing today. No idea what it's for. Called hospital and they don't know either and also checked for my little boy who is also a patient. No doubt at all it came from them just hoping they rebook me for whatever it was 😂

The appointment may be for someone with the same or a similar name to you and has been sent in error. I know it isn't exactly the same but my hairdresser sends me texts to confirm appointments for a woman with the same name as me on a regular basis. Mistakes happen.

Chill! Just ring and ask. If it is a smear - it may just save your life. It isn't really their fault if it is tricky for you to find transport. In future, if unsure of something like this, always google the number, takes seconds and saves this anxiety.

I get these texts before every hospital appointment so I doubt it is a scam. Google the hospital and ring the main switchboard number and ask to be put through to appointments.

I jave regular 6 monthly appointments and thos is exactly the wording the hospital use . Give them a ring to check

sorry should have read thread. early morning coffee not sipped syndrome

I always get that text a week before a hospital appointment. One of them I hadn't received a letter like you.

I get these texts and they're genuine. It's probably a wrong number, if you don't want to phone the number provided then phone the hospital switchboard and ask for the appointments department.

Very few hospitals to my knowledge do text or voicemail reminders due to data protection.

They all do around here as do GP surgeries

I've recently had two hospital appointments (two different hospitals, two different matters) and I received two reminder texts for one with the cost of the appoitment (£120) and for the other there was no text but in the letter they said the cost of the appointment is £1200. So the hospitals do mentioned the cost now.

It won't be a scam! How on earth would it be a scam?! That's the exact wording they use. If you used to have a different address, the letter will have gone there, most likely. Just call the hospital main switchboard and explain, they'll find you on their computer.

The exact same thing happened with me for my son - he was born at a certain hospital and then two years later referred back there. We'd moved twice since he was born and though the referral letter had the right address, they'd just matched up his nhs number to the address they had on record from when he was born. If I hadn't called up, I'd have missed a very important appointment.

All my hospital appointments are preceded by reminder texts with this wording. I don't really get the drama. You've established it isn't a scam, so either you've forgotten about a referral or follow up consultation or someone at the hospital has made a mistake. Just phone to clarify.

I get that sort of reminder from my hospital. Maybe someone just gave them the wrong number. I wouldn't just turn up without calling them. It's probably somebody else's appointment

How on earth would it be a scam

Actually it would be quite a clever scam.

Ah, just seen your update. Hope it's all ok.

We have loads and loads of appointments for my son, for several different clinics and hospitals, and a lot of them mention the cost to the NHS of missing an appointment. It's not a threat to charge you, just making sure you're aware.

I suppose it could be a scam if the number was a scam number. My appontmentbreminders usually just say Text Cancel if you can't attend, so I wouldn't expect to call.

Definitely phone the hospital to find out what the appointment is - don't just turn up for it in case it's an error or there are any special instructions or anything you have to bring

My hospital do send out reminder texts (no mention of the £160 though)

Phone them before you go as they may have selected the wrong patient. They do it ALL the time. Especially as you have no idea what it's for!

Herp a derp. Of course it could be a scam. Any text asking you to ring or text back can be a scam. Luckily op has checked it out and found it's legit. Some of these naive replies show why the scammers keep doing it. I got 3 texts in one day pretending to be from BT, asking me to text back. Check everything!