WIBU to still show up to the hospital appointment?

[Cockapoosforlife]

I have a long term health condition which impacts my life considerably, with a sizeable impact on my vision. I have had a hospital appointment scheduled for a while to review the conditions impact on my eyes and to decide if surgery is necessary, this was to take place tomorrow morning. I have just had notice from my mother who I haven’t lived with for a while that this appointment has been cancelled.

WIBU to still attend as they did not inform me and this is the only time I can do the appointment for a long time?

For context I work in quite a high pressure field with my work scheduled far in advance (think 5 years). It also involves working across multiple countries and time zones, to reschedule would place substantial delays on projects. For the appointment to also not go ahead it poses a considerably high chance of total vision loss, as well as raising the risk of unplanned surgery.

Yes, I agree. There are massive contradictions in her behaviour.

So, Op, you have had this time marked for many months.
If you can easily attend the clinic, why not? You might get lucky.

At worst you can update their data base about how to respectfully communicate with you and make a new appointment in person.

Did you get seen @Cockapoosforlife

This is my thinking. But posting on here gets loads of attention

I'm going to buck the general trend and say I would turn up too.

I have a rare and complicated knee problem which had reconstuctive surgery nearly two years ago and complications last January. I had an "urgent" MRI then all the follow up appointments cancelled (there were 4 one after the other) until I finally got one in January this year.

The surgeon was furious it had been cancelled so many times and now he has a 1 year out of date MRI which cost the NHS money which is now pretty pointless. He didn't have a hand in the cancellations (all his clinics went ahead) and thinks someone in admin made the decision moving junior doctor patients over to him during the strikes and cancelling me as they don't understand my rare injury. He said in future I am just to turn up and he will ALWAYS see me! I felt very special. He said it's the problem now with no secretaries and admin departments do the bookings and cancellations, once the original booking has been made they have no oversight of what happens.

See, this is your fundamental issue.

You are not ‘accommodating them’. They are accommodating you, by giving you an appointment.

There are so many systems in the NHS this could well be a mistake in so many different ways so I would definitely go as the clinic could well be running and the message sent wrongly. As long as you accept if there isn’t anyone there to see you, you won’t be seen. I’ve known people refuse to leave if they don’t see eg. Ophthalmologist(insert any other speciality) when there isn’t one in the building.

Consultants (and other staff) who lead/work clinics/theatre lists have to give at least 6 weeks notice for annual leave, the 6 weeks is to cancel clinics lists. To be approved the leave first needs to be agreed in terms of cover. If there is only one consultant they still need to have leave at some stage. (You can have leave at shorter notice due to an emergency or say the clinic wasn’t booked yet)

The person who cancels/books clinics has to receive notice and there are multiple systems for booking appointments, it could be a central booking team, could be the traditional secretary booking it etc. so there could be a delay between the leave request being approved and the clinic being cancelled which is why you have an appointment cancelled at shorter notice. If you have had an appointment cancelled at less than 6 weeks notice because the clinician just decided the week before to go away you should definitely ask PALs to look into it as that shouldn’t be happening. Also if there is delay with holidays being approved and clinics being cancelled management needs to improve that.

How they sent the information to your mum again is likely due to it remaining somewhere on some electronic system, so your information might be correct on the screen the receptionist is looking at but hardly any of them are connected so won’t automatically sync.

IT in the NHS is fairly disastrous, I know what I’ve written is really confusing so just imagine what trying to work with NHS IT. In saying that mistakes happen a complaint should explain reasons not use them as an excuse. I investigate complaints in the area I work so I know how time consuming but if somethings gone wrong the patient deserves an explanation.

Hope you get things sorted today some way or other.

I’ve had a hospital appointment cancelled before and they forgot to tell me so obviously i turned up. They wouldn’t see me even though I’d taken a day off work and had a 4 hr round trip to get there and they agreed they hadn’t sent the cancellation letters out. So be prepared to not be seen if you do go.

OP is not arrogant at all! Frustrated that a long awaited appt that has not only been cancelled but the text went to her mother FGS!
OP I would go as you have not had the text.

It's possible that someone was tidily trying to remove the OP's old (parental) contact details from the database and accidentally deleted the appointment instead.

I would get the letter, call and ask when the appointment is rescheduled for.

I think it's ok to turn up with an open mind but I think the clinic would've been cancelled by the consultant as he needs to be there even if junior docs are also there
I would ring the consultants secretary in due course to ensure you are listed to see consultant only
I have a complicated disability and have been the subject of a clinical case conference so too complex for junior docs
I would also add( I also have 2 eye conditions) and if your condition is retinal, you will need a few weeks recovery afterwards not days
Eyesight is so precious

Sorry your appointment was cancelled

Wow hilarious someone is going blind? Existing conditions don't tend to be covered by insurance

Did you get seen op @Cockapoosforlife I hope that you did

YANBU for being annoyed it is cancelled

YABU to think you can just turn up and be seen, or that a free medical service should be available at times to suit you

Remember, at the end of the day, it's just a job, your health is far more important. This is your eyesight you are talking about, crazy that you don't prioritise it.

Get a private appointment sorted out and start putting yourself first before you lose your sight.

Good grief. Talk about making a fuss for the sake of it. The NHS has enough to worry about without this type of nonsense

I'm assuming @Cockapoosforlife must have been seen, and has had her 'procedure.' as she is not updating her thread. If it is eye treatment, she very likely cannot see for many hours after it.

All the best OP, I hope you got seen, and that you're OK! 🤗

It’s not really fair though if she got seen because she ignored the cancellation where others took notice of their cancellation so have to wait for their treatment.

I wouldn’t worry, If other people’s cancellations also got sent to a different person they will all have turned up as well.

I was booked in for an eye appointment three months after the previous one. The letter never came. I ran out of the unusual eye drops only the consultant could prescribe. I pushed hard then after six months. My consultant admitted admin had booted me off the list. She said unless I'm in the red zone 4-6 weeks between appointments this may happen. So next time push. She wrote in my notes urgent and I've had a further appointment at the six weeks limit.

Unfortunately I had to go to their casualty yesterday because the eye issues worsened at the weekend. I'm guessing it's under the knife again in April.

Update: I was seen and we are reviewing surgical options. Apparently the text message was sent in error, I did however also check that my contact details were up to date.

I did get seen as the message was sent in error. We are now reviewing surgical options as there are a couple of different routes that can be taken. I also found out the text message was sent in error.

Well done, I'm pleased for you, especially as I once had a message sent in error and missed out on my appointment as a result