... to be annoyed about a lost referral?

[bellainthemiddle]

Said referral was made from the GP to the hospital, not for anything life-threatening but for something which was supposed to be investigated with some urgency.

It was sent back because of lack of information detail, but I didn't find this out till I called up to check if it had been received, a couple of weeks later.

It was then supposed to be resent and, to cut a long story short, it still hasn't been, or if it has, the hospital hasn't received it. It's now been 5 weeks since the original referral, for something which (according to the GP) needed urgent attention.

I had a bit of a spat with the receptionist yesterday because having been told that the referral had been done, she now told me that there's no referral and if I want one to be done I'll need to book another GP appointment (next one is in 3 weeks and besides, it seems like a waste of the doctor's time). I said I wasn't happy because this was supposed to need to happen fairly quickly and to date nothing has happened at all. AIBU?

Don't blame the receptionist!

Fair point!

I'm a medical secretary in a hospital. Please don't listen to the receptionist you don't need another GP appointment. Ring the surgery and ask to speak to a secretary not a receptionist, explain the situation to them and ask them to fax the referral straight to the appointments office at the hospital you're waiting to be seen at. The GP receptionist was wrong so you were right to blame her! You don't need to see a GP again for a missing referral. Good luck 

There must be a referral on the GP system if it was sent to the hospital, yes it had missing info but the original referral would still be on the system.

Don't blame the receptionist for the lost referral, do blame her for fobbing you off. I've gotten myself into trouble before now by believing what a GP receptionist (ie, a professional) told me - they do need to realise that some patients trust them to tell the truth, rather than just viewing them as scum of the earth.

The GP is to blame for not filling out the referral properly.

Can you not speak to the GP? Our GP takes calls between 1-2pm.

The practice would have received a notice stating that there was insufficient information after it was refused.
Phone the gp - on them to fix.

Thanks for the advice! Yes, I suppose my irritation was caused by being told one thing one day and another thing the next by the receptionist. I know it's not their fault that the referral was rejected!

The GP tel appts are booked at reception and they said there weren't any available to book when I asked, and in any case they have to be reserved for emergencies. I do feel for them - it's a really busy practice and they're obviously a bit stretched at the moment.

I did ask if they'd send the referral across to the hospital again and they told me they'd done it, but today the receptionist said this wasn't the case and that there was no referral. Very confusing! Or possibly I'm being a bit thick!

On the bright side, at least they can't think it's very urgent, otherwise I'm sure something would have happened by now!

I work in a GP practice and unfortunately referrals do sometimes go astray. Phone up and ask to speak to your GP and they can chase it up.

I find that some type of cock up with pretty much every referal is the norm I'm afraid.
Luckily we don't need much medical assistance but every time we do there has generally been some type of problem such as letters not being sent. My daughter's speech therapy referal was randomly marked as "file closed" before she'd even been seen. The system of sending appointment letters for random days and times without and patient input is also very inefficient in my opinion.
Decent admin and a modern appointment booking system within the NHS would save a lot of time and money.

I had a 6 week delay with a cardiology referral going astray.

Luckily one of the GP receptionists is someone I used to go to school with. She was really helpful and sorted it. She said it's a daily occurrence

As pp said, call and speak to the secretarial staff. They can check and resend it.

Just requested a call back. I feel guilty because inevitably, when you've asked the same question 4 or 5 times, it starts to sound like you're being critical. But I really don't mean to criticise - I just want it to get sorted out!

I had actually spoken to one of the secretaries last week and she said it had been resent, but the hospital haven't got it (it's an electronic system so they're supposed to get it in a matter of hours) and today the receptionist said that there is no referral in existence and nothing has been sent.

Too confusing!!

I've been in this situation. I am also a medical secretary. I became so exasperated with the feebleness of the GP practice that I asked them to give me a copy of the referral letter and I 'phoned the hospital appointments department and asked them for the correct email address to send it to them and emailed it myself. I got an appointment sent through very soon after that. (For clarification, I don't work at either the GP practice or the hospital)

PS: I did then call the hospital appointments department next day to check they'd seen/received the emailed referral.

All GP referrals are done electronically now so your GP should had known this has been rejected immediately and resent straight away. It’s not like the old days where bits of papef used to go astray. Complain to the practice manager it’s not acceptable.

I think you're allowed to be annoyed but not rude.

I agree it's not the receptionist's fault but it is her job to find a sensible solution and clearly a three week wait for another gp appointment is not it. If she can't overrule that she should be directing you to someone who can.

I think (hope!) that I was annoyed but not rude. However, she did keep cutting across me and saying 'You don't understand what I'm saying,' which wound me up and I ended up by saying that I understood perfectly, but I didn't think that she did because she never actually let me get to the end of a sentence. Which probably was a bit rude!

I’m a GP secretary who deals with referrals. At our surgery the receptionists don’t touch referrals, so wouldn’t know where to look, but she ought to have just said this. Ring and ask to either your GP’s secretary or whoever deals with referrals, and ask them to look into it. And at our local hospital trust the consultants secretaries don’t deal with referrals/initial appts so we often have irate patients calling where the secretary has told them the referral hasn’t been received - if you speak to the hospital ask for appointments.

It’s not the receptionists fault but I can completely understand why you’re exasperated and she should be hearing you out instead of just talking over you.

I’m in almost exactly the same position- was told a referral had been made in May. Even chased it up a couple of weeks later and told all ok and it had been sent off. A month ago I called to chase it up and now all of a sudden am being told there’s no sign of any referral It’s maddening.

I think (hope!) that I was annoyed but not rude. However, she did keep cutting across me and saying 'You don't understand what I'm saying,' which wound me up and I ended up by saying that I understood perfectly, but I didn't think that she did because she never actually let me get to the end of a sentence. Which probably was a bit rude!

Cutting across someone repeatedly to say ‘you don’t understand what I’m saying’ instead of allowing you to speak and then explaining herself in a different way was extremely rude of her OP, I don’t think you sound like you were rude at all: she was.