To think that if the NHS sends you an appointment for a significant surgical procedure, you turn up>

[XingMing]

DH has waited two years for a (complicated) day surgery on his heart. He turned up for it at 7 am this morning and of the six scheduled booked patients, two arrived. There was a surgical team of ten arranged, who stood around waiting. If this is the normal, and the doctors, surgeons and nurses seemed to think it was, then complaints about underfunding the nhs funding needs should be kicked backed to the public. It's reasonable to expect the treatment paid for via taxation, but it is unreasonable to be so cavalier about non attendance. This was a procedure that cost the NHS £20k or more in salary costs... and two-thirds of the list were no shows. Can you tell that I am incensed for the people on waiting lists and the taxpayers funding the waste? For the record, the roads were all clear.

The worst one I was told by a nurse working in a private hospital. A customer, paid for by the NHS turned up having eaten a takeaway shorty before the appointment. They opened her up and could not do the gastric banding because of this. She would have been told about the requirements. I expect the hospital billed the NHS as it was not their fault

Choose and book...
IME there is no choice and you can't book.
After grappling with the website for ages, you end up having to phone a number which is eventually answered by some poor soul who knows nothing. Then you get booked into the wrong clinic. Then you you get told off for taking up an appointment in the wrong clinic.

@Itstoocoldoutthere the patients waiting were called by a nurse by phone, after a letter saying they would call, before any appointments were made. They were pre-qualified as alive, and still wanting the surgery. I know from experiences reported on this thread, that appointments teams don't always get things right but in this case, as little as possible was left to chance. Hence, the surprise and anger at the high DNA rate.

We also received three reminders of time, date, place and nil-by-mouth instructions at four weeks, two weeks and one week before, followed by a phone call last Friday.

Yup, contacted PALS.

One of the issues locally is so many things are in older buildings, but no, those in more modern buildings, many are not built or laid out with wheelchairs in mind.

In some places I can get in, except the layout of chairs, waste bins (the big heavy foot operated kind), squirty hand wash bottles screwed to walls means I can't move or turn once in the room.

For my initial sleep apnea appointment, I had to have the appointment in my car (fortunately, there is room!) - we were being seen in little portacabins in a big marquee (left over from covid testing), but the ramps and turns involved to get into the portacabin too tight for my chair (or frankly, any power chair) so the person who saw me had to sit on the edge of the doorway into the back of my WAV whilst i was in my chair in the back of the car. Uncomfy for them, and me really.

I stick on a smile and a joke because there is no other way forward but it bloody grinds you down after a while, that everything is a billionty times more fucking difficult than it need be!

www.braintreeandwithamtimes.co.uk/news/23193305.nhs-pushing-get-patients-discharged-home-christmas/?fbclid=IwAR2gJsA85eFS9dgY4zZ4DcUwoT4vK3fJHM__MbVlWSCWpq-NBMe9qBZrePs

by "families" they mean women.

Meanwhile, my aunt has been "ready" for discharge since mid week last week, care in place, etc. It should have been Friday, but apparently there was "no one" to do the paperwork on Friday, and they don't do discharges at weekends, so she's still there today, and we're just waiting to hear whether they have anyone to do the paperwork today!

I can understand and appreciate a small number of people being frightened of hospitals in general or surgery in particular, but not the numbers or proportion the OP refers to.

There should be consequences, but I cannot think of appropriate ones that would have support.

@WiddlinDiddlin that's awful. So sorry to see this

And to everyone else who has had poor experiences. Whatever the rights and wrongs, whoever is (not) at fault, some of these stories make for difficult reading