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

As much as I wish that people wouldn't deliberately waste NHS resources it might help if they could get their act together a bit. My partner and I both work full time. Last night we arrived home from work to a letter from an NHS clinic my partner is under stating they have made him an appointment for today at 3pm - a time he should be at work 30 miles in the opposite direction. Bit difficult to arrange time off work etc. in that time frame isn't it? He had to message his very unamused manager at home and beg for the afternoon off today to get there. Perhaps some of the wasted appointments are due to this kind of thing - most working people can't get time off, even for medical appointments, for the following day once work is closed for the night!

My DD had a orthodontic treatment at our local hospital, several years ago.
All appointments were during the school day, and necessitated me having a day off work, and her needing about 2 hrs out of school.
A couple of times I needed to cancel, called the number it gave on the letter (with plenty of notice) and either left a message or spoke to someone to cancel/rearrange. Each time we were reprimanded for not attending, despite following the instructions on what to do to cancel.

Yes, Myrtlethe's question was really quite silly.
I didn't find the MRI scare because I'm not claustrophobic, but it's not difficult to understand that some people are!
I was a bit stressed though because you're not supposed to move and I had a cough. Trying not to cough was really quite difficult!

I was actually labelled as a DNA once when I collapsed in the clinic waiting room and was eventually taken by the clinic nurses and DP down to A&E.

The consultant was already running an hour late, I was 3 metres from his door, and he refused two nurses’ requests to come and look at me.

He DNA-ed me instead. Arsehole. He probably knew I would be too ill to complain, what with the medical condition I had.

That’s what taxis are for

Letters get sent weeks after the actual appointment. I do hope your attitude isn't this awful with patients.

Is it true the NHS gets fined for appointments they miss/cancel? If so, that alone must be enough to bankrupt them. I'd love it if they published those stats on the hospital wall.

The outpatient eye clinic at one of my county's hospitals has no system for cancelling a Monday morning appointment late on Fridays or over the weekend.

If you need to cancel a Monday appointment, the appointment phone line is closed after 6pm on Friday. There is no answerphone available on Friday evenings, Saturdays or Sundays where you could leave a message to say you will not be able to attend your Monday morning appointment.

On Mondays, reception is not open for calls until after 9am. But some clinic appointments are for 8:30am. So if you have been given an early morning appointment on a Monday but find you are unable to attend (for whatever reason eg: illness, transport, family crisis, carer no longer available to escort the patient etc) there is no means by which you can inform the clinic over the weekend that you cannot attend.

Since there is no answerphone system in operation, it would seem unfair on the patient to be penalised in any way for not giving the department prior warning that they will not be able to attend.

Will likely get worse when second class post is only being delivered on alternate days.

On this, and on the point I was making before...

I was sitting waiting for a dermatology appointment. Thank God the receptionist didn't deny I had an appointment that day, which has happened, despite having a letter to prove it!

I was waiting for nearly an hour, and I couldn't help noticing that about every 5th person who arrived at the reception desk was told that their appointment had been changed, and to come back another day. Many of these people had taken the day off work to attend, and some were very angy.

Now, I've worked in admin and under pressure, and I know mistakes are going to be made. But in my jobs I might have made a minor cock-up say, once a week at the most. But every 4th/5th patient with wrong information???? There really is something badly wrong with the NHS admin. And it's not trivial - a lot of money must be wasted that way.

(Also - it was ironic, considering the people they were turning away, that the nurses coming out into the waiting room to call people in to appointments found that at least 2 out of 3 were not there...either through their error, or possibly no-shows!). Yes, I WAS waiting a long time and I did pass the time by taking note of all this!!!!

Yep. Unfortunately, due to cost cutting most NHS post is being sent second class now. Which obviously isn’t getting received in time due to the postal service being run into the ground by its private investors. My husband’s a postie, he delivers actual letters maybe three days out of 6 now. Saturdays devoted entirely to parcels. Any appointment letters sent you’re looking at, at least, two weeks before receipt. This is why our department is following all appointments up with multiple phone calls.

Yes it's pretty fucking obvious that despite not even completing a full week in her new job in public health care that shes already developed disdain for the sick people she's supposed to be caring for.

OP, you need to have some compassion, understanding and patience. Otherwise you will drive yourself mad. I have been an NHS consultant for 30 years and would never write what you have just done.

The reasons people do not turn up are multifactorial. These are related to the NHS and its incompetent processes, the patient and all the complexities of a human life, and also the kind of medical condition being addressed. Once you add in logistics, the weather, and transport into it, it feels like a unsolvable problem.

I think we need easier processes for cancelling and changing appointments. That would help as a start.

And sometimes it’s frustrating. I get it. I called a patient this morning who had only been referred a couple of weeks ago. She was sent the phone appointment by text, email and post. I called her at 10 am and she said she was feeling sleepy and would prefer a different appointment. I offered to call her back in 30 minutes but she said she was too tired to speak. Anyway, I will reschedule the appointment. I can’t deny that inside I felt a bit frustrated, but there would have been no point in saying anything. People are people and we just have to get on with it. I would rather speak to someone when they are ready to have the conversation.

You will burn out if you feel so angry and frustrated after one week! And don’t lose your compassion and respect towards patients. I have never been rude to a patient in my career. Sometimes I’m annoyed inside but my professionalism comes first. And we have to treat our patients with respect.

I'm not claustrophobic but do find MRIs uncomfortable. I've also had a few where the possible outcome has been a bit of a concern

(My last one was just to check there had been no changes)

It isn't. The OP has posted a nonsensical debate in MN with subsequent postings making even less sense from the "persona" she purposes to be.

That's unfair. Until I had an MRI I only had a very vague idea of what it entailed and why it might be a scary prospect, and I don't think that's unusual.

@gamerchick My DH has NHS eye clinic appointments every 6 months. In our area this has been farmed out to a Private provider, although the appointments are held in an NHS premises. When his appointment is due, he gets a phone call from the provider asking him when he would like to come to clinic. When he was working (now retired) this enabled him to always choose the 1st appointment of the day at 8.00am. It was like a different world to other NHS clinics!

Also, if you need specific blood results for the appointment, send the form to the patient. Send it in enough time for the patient to actually book the blood test via the online system for a date that allows time for the blood to be analysed.
You will find that this avoids wasting the clinician's time.
There appears to be no way to speak to anyone sensible to ask why the blood test form has not been provided and you cannot book or attend a blood test appointment without the form.

Yep, you could have taken a cab. Sorted the car out later.

YABU

who decides what the good reason is, and who would have time to categorise this?

also, nerves I think is as good a reason as any. Some people are nervous about tests, nervous about diagnoses, nervous because they suffer from domestic abuse and don’t know how to tell their partner they have an appointment.

yes, ok, it’s a waste of resources but god knows that the higher up managers have meetings about meetings to discuss various scenarios which can also be deemed a waste.

I received a hospital letter containing my appointment several days after the appointment was supposed to have taken place. The letter was even dated the day after said appointment. This also happened to my mother at least once.

That sort of admin cock-up does happen. Not as infrequently as you seem to think. Nobody can attend an appointment they didn't know they had.

I also once changed (postponed) a hospital appointment because it ended up being on the same day as my Dad's funeral, which couldn't be helped. I hope that was a good enough reason for you.

I've received my breast screening appointment in the last week and have had to rearrange it because it had come through for a date when I would be on holiday (already paid for a long time ago). Options were to either rearrange it or just not turn up (which I wouldn't do).

There can be many reasons why people might want to change/cancel an appointment. Of course there are piss takers, but they don't represent all of us.

This is familiar! I was booked in for an elective C-section with DD2 at a consultant appt a few weeks earlier. Consultant booked me in on my due date. On a Saturday. On a bank holiday weekend. I queried it there and then, but she was quite happy, sent me home with my letter etc.

Of course when I turned up 12-hour fasted at 7am ready for surgery on a Saturday morning the staff were utterly unimpressed with me. I got shunted off into a side room until a (different) consultant arrived, who then gave me very short shrift and sent me home with a flea in my ear.

I've not really felt safe at a hospital since, particularly not that one. I'm certain that experience contributed to my postnatal depression.

You are in your first week and already you have stupid opinions?

Ive had 4 appointments cancelled by the NHS in the last year on the day which resulted in 4 days loss of pay

The post makes sense. Comprehension seems to be the issue.

When i had a laparoscopy, there were supposed to be 10 of us booking in that morning but only 8 turned up.

We were all given a bed and told to wait to be called to theatre. When the staff came to take one women to theatre, she had completely disappeared, her bed and locker were empty, and staff had to spend time searching the ward (toilets etc) so see if she was ok.

But it turns out she'd literally just got cold feet and gone home! Apparently that wasn't that unusual. I guess some people have a lot of anxiety around hospitals, general anaesthetics, operations etc.