To think the NHS should use the UK date format in texts for clarity?

[ChaosTrulyReigns]

My next Covid vaccination appointment is the 8th of June.

I've had a reminder text.

Telling me that it's the 6th of August

AIBU to think this is pretty unacceptable?

(Photo 2 shows original booking of 7th June, I had to amend but that's the only text I ca fund indicating a June appt, apologies for oddity)

What that’s crazy

I would not assume it’s US

I had the same format in a text message sent yesterday. I clicked into 'manage your appointment' and the date is the original 7th of June on there rather than 6/7/21 as on the text!

Just checked mine is right way round

@RightYesButNo

I cross-posted with you, OP, as you say you’ve found another message that it’s definitely in June. I can only see the photos in your OP? As many other people are saying their texts had the right format, perhaps yours was just a one-off error? Still... I might go to the link ( www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/book-coronavirus-vaccination/ ) and use the “manage my appointments” bit to view my appointment and make triply sure something hasn’t gone wonky.

Thanks for that, this is nice and clear.

Gah, yes! I'm tired of the increasing prevalence of the US date format in UK communications. It's cropping up everywhere. I don't mean there's anything intrinsically wrong with it, but it's confusing if the date is 1 - 12. If there's going to be a global change to that format we need to know.

How odd. Just checked mine and its uk format

That's odd. Just checked mine and it's 13-May-2021, which obviously is much easier to understand.

Mine is UK format.

It's not Americanisation as such. A software developer somewhere has messed up storing or fetching the date, or the server it's coming from has accidentally been left in the default US region. It won't be a deliberate choice!

@paralysedbyinertia

YANBU, that's confusing. The texts that I have had from the NHS recently do use the UK format, or in some cases, they actually state the name of the month, which is probably the option least likely to cause confusion. I think they should all follow a standard pattern.

Yes the ones I have received do too.

@Arbadacarba

Gah, yes! I'm tired of the increasing prevalence of the US date format in UK communications. It's cropping up everywhere. I don't mean there's anything intrinsically wrong with it, but it's confusing if the date is 1 - 12. If there's going to be a global change to that format we need to know.

Actually, I do think there is something intrinsically wrong with the US date order. It doesn't make sense.

Our date order goes from the smallest time unit (date) through to the the largest (year). That seems logical.

In some countries, such as Japan, the order goes from the largest time unit (year) through to the smallest (date). That also seems logical.

The US format starts with the medium unit of time (month), then jumps to the smallest (date) and then the largest (year). It's bloody illogical!

I think PP was probably onto something with the using US software that just has it as default and no one thought to have the capability to change it.

I've had a text confirming my next appointment on 6/7/2021. Now, I know it's actually 7/6/2021 but it could easily confuse someone who has problems remembering stuff.

I think it is awful.

Interestingly, the original texts use The correct date format.

It’s not everywhere must be a different system?

Possibly not noticed as the date can be changed like that. Not sure how specific these things are but if it was 4/16/21 it might be picked up

But I have no idea how it’s organised above may not be possible

A while ago, an analysis of financial data by one of the major London banks was stalled for a week after it was realised that the software was interpretating UK-style dd/mm/yyyy dates as if they were written in the American mm/dd/yyyy format. The issue only came to light after somebody asked why half the transactions were undated, only to be told that none of them were. The resulting investigation - which cost a fortune in wasted time - revealed that every date in which the day of the month was greater than 12 had simply been interpreted as a missing value, because it was an invalid date.

That such a stupid mistake can still so easily be made beggars belief - and I truly believe that one day it will cost lives (assuming that it hasn't already). An unambiguous format should be agreed internationally: something like dd-month-yyyy with the month written in text would seem to me to be an obvious choice.

How far ahead are you getting the reminder, I booked with the national system and my 2nd one is coming up soon, I haven't heard anything. I hope I still have the original message from months ago.

I too am seeing far too much US dating, generally, and not liking it.

I'm a big fan of this. Cause this is how I grew up date/month/year and i find the month first thing very confusing and illogical and it messes with my head and I have no idea how to write the date in uk. I've learned now to just write feb. Etc. To avoid confusion.

It's not an americanization since to my knowledge they use month/day/year. Most of the world use dmy or ymd.

An unambiguous format should be agreed internationally: something like dd-month-yyyy

There's already an iso standard for dates

According to Cambridge in the UK dates are written day/month/year and in America month/day/year. Also the IELTS test talks about date/month/year being British English.

It's not an americanization since to my knowledge they use month/day/year.

Yes, but that is the problem. The texts are using American format, not U.K.

Contact PALS and the department you're attending. I work in radiology for the NHS, this would explain why so many people don't turn up for appointments!

Must have been a mistake. All of my texts from them state the correct format

This is because certain GP practices have already been outsourced to US Companies, privately.

The NHS does use the UK based dates in their texts, individual NHS GPs do not.

Thankfully my GP Surgery now changed their header and they come in as GP Surgery, but I still have three NHS text chains all from different NHS providers - all UK format, but none of my healthcare is US privatised (that I am aware of, apart from one UC Centre that I attended a couple of years ago).