Just to echo the experiences of others on here. My OH has cancer and has needed numerous appointments for various tests, scans, x-rays, chemotherapy sessions, etc. Appointment administration is pathetic. You get a random letter through for some things, phone calls and/or texts for others - just no standardisation, not even from the same hospital.
When you phone to change an appointment, which happens a lot because he has to have a blood test x days before each chemo session and the dept are incapable of organising that properly, so every month, OH has to phone to change the appointments they sent him, so that they match up properly. Usually, no answer to the phone number given, just an answerphone which they never call back from, so he has to keep trying at random times of the day and eventually gets a human. Often, they can't change the appointment and just glibly tell him to phone to change the other appointment, then he tells them it's the same number on the appointment letter, so it's definitely their dept to change one or both to match properly.
He also has a monthly phone call from the haematology consultant. Should be the day before issue of the sack of drugs he has to collect. But of course, the letter comes through with all kinds of random dates which don't match, so he has to phone a different dept to get them to make the consultant phone call on the right day (usually takes several attempts).
The whole NHS admin is a complete shambles and must cause massive amounts of waste, wasted appointments, etc., just be incompetence and inefficiency!