To think that if you cancel on the day with the NHS, you should be put to the bottom of the list?

[SaltAirAndTheRust]

Unless you have a good reason of course!

I’ve just started and I’m in my first week, in this week we’ve had multiple cancel due to nerves or just not turning up. Seeing the amount of work that gets them to this point, it’s staggering! I just can’t get my head around it

I've had several letters arrive after appointments. There are so many reasons why someone may not attend..that you may not be party too. As hospitals often cancel routine surgery due to emergencies, I think it often works out even. If someone cancels due to "nerves" they haven't been properly prepared for surgery have they? I'm awaiting surgery ..working full time..its been cancelled several times...one time I was asked to come on a date I'd arranged a big work event (days notice)...I couldn't...I needed to protect my long time future in work...I'd given work 3 previous dates for urgent surgery that were then cancelled by the hospital. I'm a former NHS employee.. these things are FAR more complicated than you seem to be aware. Sometimes a patient is already in hospital ELSEWHERE seriously...if you had the time to review DNAs there would be many legitimate reasons. Please don't cultivate a judgemental attitude that's the last thing the NHS needs

I think the point is the scale of the cancellations and no shows. It seems to be unlikely that that many people have sudden unavoidable reasons to not attend appointments at such short notice. Most people posting on here would probably not miss an appointment if the could possibly avoid doing so, but there seem to be a lot who really don't care and don't realise they are contributing to long waiting lists.

I have severe medical trauma due to a huge amount of difficult and painful surgery as a child. I'm usually fine with anything medical - well not absolutely fine but I manage them with diazepam and self talk - and I have had a fair amount of unrelated things needing medical help
However, I was due to have a biopsy not long ago and on the morning I simply could not go - I had a major panic attack and had no choice but to postpone. I felt absolutely rubbish leaving it so late but luckily, everyone was very kind and understanding and I managed to get it done a few weeks later.
It isn't as simple as being a bit scared and not bothering, for some people

For almost every appointment I’ve had since June they’ve sent text reminders and called me on two occasions the day before to check I was attending.

I agree if a practical way of doing this could be done. Certainly if no contact is made to cancel the appointment.

I do think though that if people were not kept waiting so much when attending medical appointments there would be more willingness for people to cancel in advance. There is very much a culture of your time is less important than mine.

YANBU in any sort of private appointment you're charged if you cancel within 24hrs or don't turn up. I've just been in the GP surgery and the poster on the wall says 3.5 days worth of appointments were "no shows" last months. That's ridiculous!

E-referrals is the national platform so that's why I asked what kind of appointments you're referring to? Do you mean a consultant appointment? Diagnostics? Surely you get a conversation requires you to clarify what point you're making.

And no of course they don't let you select any day and time you like hence why loads of patients on these services end up on lists requiring a phonecall because they cancel the appointment booked for them and don't rebook leaving a message that "they can't see any suitable appointments".

I had to cancel an appointment once on the day I had vomiting and diarrhea I got took of the list completely in error took nearly a year to get a new appointment. Next time I will just go no matter how infectious I am

I have to attend a local hospital every 2-3 months for a regular check and update. Have done so for the last 3 years.
i would say at least a third of all my appointments (usually advised soon after a visit) have been canceled by the clinic and rescheduled, some with only 2-3 days notice, some the day before. Occasionally I may get a thinly veiled reason…..drs strikes, or staff holidays etc. the fact that the main consultant only does one day a week in clinic doesn’t help much either!
I work full time and my employers are very good and supportive, but this changing around just messes everyone up.

'I do think though that if people were not kept waiting so much when attending medical appointments there would be more willingness for people to cancel in advance. There is very much a culture of your time is less important than mine.'

Agree with this. It's a complex, system-wide problem with no easy answers

I work for the NHS. In a different capacity now but worked many years clinically in ultrasound. I understand your frustration's, wasted appointments are really annoying. Even more so when letters have been sent, text reminders and follow up calls. Our department still call all patients when booking and then confirming appointments a week and the day before. We still get DNA’s. We used to display the amount of hours wasted on DNA’s in our waiting room as a bit of a deterrent. We operate a 3 strikes and you’re out system where the patient will be referred back to the Gp/referee if they fail to attend 3 appointments. I think charging for DNA’s who haven’t bothered to cancel would be beneficial to the departments/NHS as a whole.

As long as some given enough time to re fill the slot we have no issue with cancellations. t’s not alway as easy as saying ‘unless you have a good reason’. Most people think their reason is good enough. Even last minute cancellations, lists can be jiggled about to fit someone in.

Can we charge the NHS if they waste our time?
if they cancel more than once and you have arranged annual leave etc.
i have seen some of the worst and best of the NHS recently, when my FIL was in hospital. The NHS housing officer, who was in charge of freeing up ‘ bedblockers’ got in touch with my husband and said they needed to get him out of hospital. Despite being on maximum oxygen and having pneumonia they started to plan to put him in a travel lodge. I said this was ridiculous and he would not manage, he also had 2 catheters and was not mobile. She demanded we send copies of our council tax bills, so they could place him in our town, despite his previous home only being 8 miles away. She was very aggressive in her tone. To cut a long story short, he died a few days after her demands. She kept bombarding us about the Travel Lodge and finally my husband told her my FIL was dead and maybe they could communicate with medical staff. Then when my husband went to visit his father, having missed the death by minutes, they had let him die on a 6 bedded ward. The curtains were half open and the elderly gentlemen opposite could see the body. His mouth was gaping wide open, no pillow placed to support the jaw. So now that memory is etched in my husbands mind. He apologised to the gentlemen opposite and left. Poor form for a 86 year old to die with zero dignity.

Surely you aren't making the embarrassing error of thinking NHS England is the whole NHS and that services are uniform throughout it? Surely not.

Really. We waited a full 16 months for a cardiology appointment for my son, he woke up with a vomiting bug surely you aren’t suggesting we soldier in and risk it spread through the hospital OR that we go to the bottom of the list??

I'd like to know how many people on this thread are able to manage their appointments online through "E-referrals, the national platform"?

MRI scans, maybe?

One big difference is that for other services you make a mutually convenient appointment, and if you can't make it you give them a quick ring and either cancel or reschedule.

I've never had anyone else but the NHS send me a random appointment and expect me to be there, yet also provide no sensible means of contacting them if I can't attend.

The letter for my X-ray when I had pneumonia arrived 3 days after the day of the appointment.

Apparently we're imagining it and everybody can book online through a system called E-referrals.

Not in this part of the UK, you can’t.

I agree that not turning up for an NHS appointment is poor. My friend worked on a children's day ward and the number of people who didn't turn up for their surgery was staggering - and this is children. Beyond belief really and so upsetting for families whose children are waiting such a long time for surgery to have appointments wasted.

The NHS do cancel appointments too - don't get me started on the nightmare we had to endure with my elderly father who was waiting for surgery/treatment, it was an absolute joke.

BUT I don't think it is fair to say that it's OK for the public to be no shows for appointments because the NHS cancel appointments - like some kind of tit for tat. We should all do our bit to protect the NHS as much as we can by keeping appointments - we're all going to need them at some stage.

You never know what's going on in people's lives tbh. I had to cancel one on the day last week. I have a spinal injury that causes chronic pain but most of the time doesn't affect my mobility to severely. I can walk around 15 meters and use my wheelchair outside of the house.

Last week however I woke up fully paralysed and didn't get feeling back for about 7 hours. I was trapped in my bedroom as I live alone and my wheelchair was folded up on the other side of the flat. Ironically the appointment was for a fitting for a new wheelchair!

@citygirl77 , that's a truly horrifying story. I'm so sorry. Some people working in the NHS were heartless to start with and some are made heartless by working in such a brutal system where there is never enough of anything. But there are no excuses for such an appalling lack of care ❤️

I don't agree with going to the end of the list because you cannot attend an appointment that you are given a few days notice for

Isn't there just 🙄
Why?