Needs to be a better way to contact hospitals

[Auburngal]

Had a letter through the post yesterday for a date for minor surgery. I can't go as I will be abroad!

So have been trying to ring the number on the letter yesterday and this morning, and its constant ringing. No e-mail address.

In other departments I am under (or used to be) I had left messages on voicemail and no one replied. Given up leaving messages on these lines. Anyway, if there was an e-mail address, I probably get zero response too.

The NHS keep banging on about the number of no shows for appointments is increasing. Well if people are finding it impossible to speak to someone in order to say they can't come to the appointment, then the NHS can't fully blame the patients.

I remember DM had an appointment she couldn't go to and I had an appointment at a different hospital - different department and DF and I went to the department where DM had this appointment and got it changed there and then.

I am not going to waste 4 hours of my time going to the hospital - go on bus to the hospital as parking is a joke and the way the buses are less frequent, it would be 4 hours.

What am I supposed to do?

If you go on a trust website and look for the service you were referred to, there should be an email address for the department.
You may not get a response but it doesn't mean the answering machine or email address aren't monitored. They should still cancel your appointment, they just won't necessarily let you know that they did.

They shouldn’t have sent you a date for an op without discussing and offering you the date on the phone, that’s again nhs access policy. If you can’t get hold of them (common problem due to too many people calling/not enough staff/phones breaking - it’s terrible, I agree with you), find the number for PALS on the trust website they have to provide a response to you with 24 hours for simple queries like yours. Our pals team (in this instance) would email or call my direct dial as the manager for the service and I would resolve or ask one of my team to resolve/call you back).

I would remind them they’ve gone against access policy though. I bet their DNA rate is sky high like you say!

I think if they let just you choose/agree the appointment date in the first place that would solve much of the issue. Sending one out which you then have to change is a waste of everyone's time

I did disclose the dates I wasn't going to be available. It must be computerised without consideration of the dates I mentioned.

Until late 2022, I was able to book the next appointment or surgery date with the reception staff. This surgery is on going as its removing skin lesions as had about 7-8 removed in 5 procedures. Now its "you get a letter in the post"