To think there must be a better way of arranging NHS appointments than by letter?

[Feelingvawful]

Long story short I have just found out that I missed a hospital appointment on Friday afternoon.

Although it is my fault (and I feel so so so bad about it!), had the appointment not been arranged by a letter in the post I would not have missed it, or at least would have been able to call to rearrange to this week.

AIBU to think that in 2023 there is a better way for the NHS to arrange appointments than by letter? Surely a ‘copy’ of the letter could be texted or emailed if such contact details are given? 😬

YANBU.

This outdated obsession with sending letters to patients is one of the many reasons why the NHS is failing and unfit for purpose. The entire organisational & administrative mindset is stuck in the last century.

I had blood tests at my local hospital a few weeks ago. My GP hasn’t received the results because they are waiting for a letter and their computer systems don’t communicate. It’s utterly pathetic, and the people who work in the system appear to have little understanding of the outside world of 21st century communication technology.

Lack of standardisation of practice across the UK is ridiculous imo
The NHS wastes so much money on this kind of thing and then has no money for staff pay rises...
Why do we need to develop a different system for every hospital when we already have an NHS app?

from about 6 weeks to 4 years ds was under 4 different consultants, at least 1 appt a month. I remember a “fair and Frank” conversation with my mother about the about of drama I created managing the admin. Needless to say it cut me deep (mainly cause it’s not like we went to rhe appointments because ds was the best example of human excellence they’d ever seen!). Anyway she’s now managing her mothers appointments and it’s completely demented. All done by mail, ans endless calls to switchboards which ring for hours.

I get everything. First a email notification to log in to the hospital patient portal, there is my new appointment. Then I’ll get a letter , sometimes this appointment is 5 months ahead so plenty of time to lose the letter. Couple of days before the appointment a text to remind me. I could do without the letter.

You normally have to
opt in but in my hospital trust we get letters, text and more reminder texts.

I always get a text ,which I have to confirm the appointment, an email and a letter. Then I get a text reminder 2 days beforehand.

I went to a gp appointment last week, and she needed to look up my history. She spent ages looking on the computer, opening each scanned letter to see if it was the one she was looking for. Some of the scans were so blurry that she couldn't read them.

I couldn't believe the hospital writes letters, prints and posts them, then the GP surgery opens the letters and scans them on the their system.

Why not just e mail them!!!

We definitely don't have online portals here but we can get text reminders. I've got a hospital appointment this Thursday and got the letter a few days ago, a text on Thursday a week before the appointment and will then get another text 24-48 hours before the appointment.

There should be an opt in to have appointments sent by text/email. Would save millions. I always get letters sent to us. It’s so archaic.

My hospital appts are texted and a follow letter. There is a patient portal that you log into and everything is there.

There used to be something called Choose and Book about 15 or so years ago where you went online and picked a date/time/location. You could pick somewhere local. Now everything seems to be miles away and you have to wait for them to send a letter telling you when and where it is. There used to be mammograms in a mobile unit in the local tesco car park. Now you have to go to a hospital miles away

I get all my appointments by text now. It gives me a link and a code which I use to login. Then I can view the letter online. If I don’t access it within 5 days they post the letter out.

Great system that saves postage and yet covers the bases for those who don’t have smart phones etc.

I have 2 children being treated by different consultants.
DS2 is under the local hospital, they use a system called mydrdoctor and his letters are fully online and I get a txt message the day before the appointment.
DD is under the local children’s hospital and they use mymft, I get online letters but also a paper copy through the post and a text message, it’s almost overkill!

There are definitely better ways, but people have to be willing to consider change as improvement rather than something to fear. Unfortunately, the current government is not trustworthy and any improvements via privatising areas of healthcare will rightly be viewed with suspicion. We can all imagine them outsourcing a multimillion pound digitisation project to their mates who aren't the best qualified option and it's another ridiculously outdated lame duck before it launches.

I'm in Canada and my province has a Digital ID for all healthcare. It contains a record of all previous test results, shows me test results as soon as they're available, all previous and upcoming appointments, vaccination records, medication history. I once couldn't remember the dosage of iron my daughter takes when I was at an out of town pharmacy - the pharmacist was able to use her ID number to look up what she normally has prescribed and get me the right one without a prescription.

We have a hybrid of private and funded healthcare, in that it's free to the user, but private clinics offer the services and bill the health service for them if the GP referred you. So my GP gives me the request form, and I can call or online book any one of 4 ultrasound providers/blood/urinalysis providers within my town and see who can see me at the most convenient time. I can always be seen within the day if I want to. The provider uploads the results to the digital ID and I still don't pay anything at the point of use, but because they're private businesses it's an entirely different experience. They're competing for my custom and make sure that they have convenient appointments available. These clinics also offer privately insured / paying patients other lucrative services (cosmetic stuff or physio etc) which keep them extremely profitable.

When my daughter needed to see a specialist, I was given their office number by the doc and we made an appointment over the phone. They don't just pick a day and summon us!

I work at a private psych clinic, and most of my clients are funded by private insurance, but I also see referrals from the health service who need my area of specialty. They all receive the same care from my clinic, although to get the referral from the health service, clients are usually in a crisis situation rather than pre-emptively concerned.

I get a text reminder a week or so before an appointment with "Reply C to confirm" and that's the whole appointment reminder unless I login in to have a look in advance. But I made the appointment rather than waited to be granted one, so it's already marked up in the calendar. I am shocked that the NHS are still sending letters through the post and running a "surprise! Here's your appointment time!" system. But also not shocked at all unfortunately...

its really crappy if there was a no other contact. Why isn’t it universal across the nhs? To be fair my second remainder text was letting me know I’d be wasting the NHS £160 if I missed my appointment and it was an appointment with another consultant hired by the NHS so that’s interesting

I get letters and also text reminders for all my nhs appointments? Assumed that would be the norm

I'm currently on the two week rule for hospital appointments. Both appointments (first one was cancelled) have been arranged over the phone first with a follow up letter.

Currently awaiting another appointment, so will see what they do this time.

I get a reminder text too.

I recently received two letters, both with the same date, one re-arranging a surgical procedure on x date and the other cancelling it! Cue hours on the phone trying to find out whether I was expected or not.

Just the fact that patients have no control over their appointment times is horrendously old-fashioned.

Not only is it inefficient and dated, it's is a total waste of money.

Like a previous poster I've had several missed appointments in the past as I've not received a letter but I have then received a text to tell me I missed the appointments.

The whole system where I am is still stuck in the 80s where everything is sent by post. I often idly wonder if the NHS have a deal with the royal mail to keep them afloat.

Like a previous poster I've had several missed appointments in the past as I've not received a letter but I have then received a text to tell me I missed the appointments.

The whole system where I am is still stuck in the 80s where everything is sent by post. I often idly wonder if the NHS have a deal with the royal mail to keep them afloat.

Apologies for the double post. Apparently my internet connection decided to be equally as archaic as the NHS.

As with all things NHS. THE NHS, is not a single thing. Each GP, Hospital, Trust, CCG, have different managers, good or bad, different focus, different ways of running things. Remember the failed
NHS integration system? It failed because all these disparate organisations couldn't agree what they wanted.

The better run Trusts or GP's have implemented modern digital appointment systems, others haven't.