To think the NHS aren't helped by their administration?

[Savageswimming]

I know there are some fantastic administrative staff and secretaries at the NHS and I'm sure there are lots of good systems in place too. We get great care and are grateful for it but I can't help but think a lot of inefficiencies stem from shortcomings in administration.

We've had such a frustrating time lately with appointments for DS and family which would have wasted NHS resources too and were completely avoidable I.e. unnecessary appointments because one department not in touch with other and booking things which frankly don't make sense (we've tried to check if necessary if it doesn't look right and it's so difficult to get past the initial "well it says here you are booked in for both" instead of any suggestion of being proactive and thinking logically) being sent backwards and forwards with queries ultimately dealt with by whoever we first thought it logically would be etc. I'd say this is our experience more often than not, except when someone switched on is involved and gets everything sorted out, or we doublecheck everything ourselves and are persistent which I don't mind but I feel ultimately wastes NHS time too changing things.

I don't have the answers (staff training would be fantastic though I'll admit that I don't know where the budget would come from) and I suppose it's a theme with many (but not all) large organisations but it just seems such a shame and puts so much extra pressure on staff.

I've just had a letter rearranging an appointment for the third time. I called the number on the letter to talk about it.
I got told to call phone number 2, who told me to call phone number 3, who told me to call phone number 1!
Bloody ridiculous system. No one can tell me why the appointment keeps being cancelled, except that the consultant is ' not available '. And no one will help me get this appointment earlier, despite me being in considerable pain. It was originally in jan, now in May.

I'm so sorry to hear that @Franksinatra

I hope you can get the answers you need soon.

An example of what we have come across is an appointment to review the results of something... which is happening after the review appointment! And when I've called about it, it's taken forever for the penny to drop. Usually because "well it says here the appointment to see X is on this date and the appointment for the scan is on this date" and normally the person I'm speaking to has to verify that what I'm explaining is correct with a busy consultant before agreeing that a review appointment (even named something like that) should happen after the thing it's reviewing!