AIBU to think abysmal management is costing the NHS ££££?

[mmmgoats]

Had an ongoing complaint for nearly a year and a half now which warranted referral to dermatologist.

I would say half the appointments that I’ve had in this time were completely unnecessary. Examples:

• appointment to have photographs of complaint taken which ended up being an appointment where I was told I was going to have photos taken (which I already knew as had been informed in previous appointment) but no actual photos taken. Really didn’t warrant wasting a hospital appointment for this.

• When photos had finally been taken, for called in for another appointment which I presumed was to talk about next steps but no it was just to tell me the photos had come back and there would be another appointment to start next steps. could have been done by letter or phone.

• When I finally got an appointment as a pre-op session (after a further three appointments in between) I was told that actually, now they wouldn’t be treating me at all despite attending hospital appointments on and off for a year because it “wasn’t as inflamed” and if it got worse I’d have to start again and go back to the GP to get a new referral, but the op would only ever taken place when it was inflamed so if it went down between GP and referral appointment, it wouldn’t get done again. Despite being told repeatedly that I need to have complaint removed and a skin graft done or it will never go away, keep flaring up and spread/scar badly. Oh and if it does flare up again I have to apply for my own funding for the op.

I have had at last count 12 appointments. Most of these have me no new information at all and the doctors even seemed slightly confused as to why I was there.

I also twice received letters for appointments when the date had already past by the time I received it.

We are constantly told that the NHS is on its knees and people are wasting resources but it seems like the NHS itself is giving out unnecessary appointments all over the place. The systems and procedures just don’t seem to work and from speaking to friends it seems this isn’t unusual.

I’ve had great care on the NHS before and, before the “you should be grateful” posts start, I am. Very. But this has opened my eyes to the amount of money that must be wasted each week on appointments alone.

I agree but the NHS is a sacred cow and the only suggestions we're allowed to make to improve it must involve throwing more money at it!

What you've experienced is a mess, but it's far from the norm. Most people struggle to get one appointment, not twelve! Have you written to them to offer feedback on your experience?

We don't have an NHS dermatology department in our city any longer, it's been outsourced to a private provider. Now that's a huge waste of money.

It's always worth giving feedback about a crap system like this to PALS, the department head and the CEO, so they know what needs fixing.

I had similar with gynae. Things improved.

I have said this on loads of threads but I’m going to keep saying it.
Ds has a once a year clinic appointment. They aim for the start of the academic year. Every year it falls on the same day as another important appointment so I have to rearrange. I can’t book an appointment. I have to wait for the letter to come, phone and cancel the wait for the next appointment to come and so on until one hits at the right time. It’s once a year and ever year.
The consult knows this as it happens with every school age child she sees. She’s tried changing the clinic date or booking the appointments herself so they are a month earlier or later a year in advance. It’s never allowed to stand.
We used to be able to attend the same clinic at another area, so on a different day but that’s been stopped too.
I am always suspicious of all the misses appointment notices too because we definitely get letters dated the same day as the appointment.
I have heard the NHS computer system is out of date and useless. I’m guessing it’s going fo have to fail entirely and catastrophically before they replace it though.

That's shit admin not management

For years people have banged on about NHS money being wasted on managers instead of front line staff. So they've cut management back massively and unsurprisingly management is poor.

Here's a study on it: www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/health-and-social-care-bill/mythbusters/nhs-managers

Choice quote:
According to the Office for National Statistics, the proportion of managers in the UK workforce as a whole in June 2010 was 15.4 per cent. These statistics also show that there were 77,000 hospital and health service managers across the United Kingdom, or 4.8 per cent of the NHS workforce. In other words, the NHS has a managerial workforce that is one-third the size of that across the economy as a whole.