AIBU to think the hospital is wrong?

[mmmmkakshch]

I had an appointment today at 8 30 am for a scan ive been waiting for for quite a while. It was at 8 30 am. I arrived at the hospital at 8 13 am. There was a giant queue waiting for the receptionist. It appeared they were down staff. I waited for over 30 minutes to get to the front to be told I was late and the appointment was now cancelled and id have to get a new referral via the gp. Ive been waiting over 4 months for this scan. I explained that i arrived in plenty of time and she said there was nothing she could do.
I dont really think im being unreasonable

that must have been soooooooo annoying. I would be furious.

Personally thoug I wouldn't bother with writing a complaint - by the time it has been reviewed & responded to you'll be quicker going back to your GP! 😩

that said - clearly this is ridiculous. As others have said, go to PALS - ideally actually go to PALS. Don't send a note but actually see & speak someone face to face. They are generally wonderful at resolving this sort of problem & know who to speak to etc.

Please complain and good luck. You are definitely not being unreasonable.

The NHS is an amazing resource but my god their administration is awful.

This.

I think my family have had everything they could have done wrong happen to someone in the wider family.

It's why I have no faith in the missed appointments data. I think if they blame patient means they don't have to take reponsblity and make any changes or spend any money.

OP - I'd complain to teh hospital managemnet and PALs and go back to GP as well.

I would literally anywhere else but having never been seen on time at a hospital appointment I would also have assumed it would be fine (and that the receptionist would be aware that people in the queue are likely to be reaching their appointment times).

I would be furious OP. As an NHS admin worker their system and planning sounds totally ridiculous.

My local hospital has touch screens where we confirm arrival for all outpatient appointments. It literally takes 10 seconds.

I would definitely put in an urgent complaint to PALS, copying it to the doctor you were booked to see and the outpatient manager (or whatever their title is). They would have been in the wrong even if they hadn’t asked you not to come too early, but the fact that they did makes it even worse.
I have sympathy for the snowed-under receptionist, but presumably they knew some people have appointments at 8:30 and should really have checked whether anyone booked for that time was in the queue.

A complaint is absolutely warranted in this circumstance.

Very urgent complaint today!

All the hospital appointments I have had recently have stated DO NOT arrive more than 10 minutes before your appointment.

I’m also a nurse and I would definitely complain, go through PALS as it has to be looked at. It sounds like the clinic is running complete inefficiently.

I would phone your consultants secretary and explain the situation. You shouldn’t have to go back through the GP as you were there.

People being able to attend their scans shouldn’t depend on them having the nerve to do this.
This is not OP’s fault

This is exactly what I was going to post. They are making admin staff redundant and not filling posts when people retire/leave at my local hospital right now.

The annoying part is people that got there 30minutes early would be before you in the queue getting checked in and delaying you! If they had got there 10 minutes before like instructed they wouldn’t be in the queue yet

I would make a complaint to the PALS team. Being told you'd missed your appointment after waiting in the queue is madness. The receptionist probably has no authority or time to re-book "missed" appointments so this should be flagged.

I usually arrive 40 minutes beforehand if I can. I ignore congestion suggestions, at least I wouldn't have read that, only when the appointment was and where. Hospitals are huge and I like to have time to walk to wherever I'm going.
You should have jumped the queue - but they are being unreasonable, I think, because mostly appointments run late (mind, I had an X-ray withing 5 minutes of my arrival at local (v. large) hospital a few weeks ago).

Such a waste of an appointment. No wonder the NHS is in the mess it is 😡

@Greggsit i don’t agree with you at all. There is no need at all. People work, have children to arrange care for, etc. An appointment time is just that - an appointment. OP was early.

This was clearly an error on their part, why would you try and turn this around on OP?

100% complain. They need to know this is happening.
Also when it’s medical stuff you don’t think straight and can’t March to the front/complain when you’re in the moment

I hope you get somewhere with Pals. One of my recent NHS admin experiences: arrived at hospital for pre-surgery check. They've done away with reception desk and instead I had to phone the clerk. The mobile reception was appalling and I had to shout my dob and address in the waiting room and they still couldn't understand. Then said admin person appeared from behind a door and had a go at me for phoning. The instructions were on their poxy letter!

Yeah definitely complain, tell them to review CCTV, I’d even ask them to cover your parking costs.

Considering the patronising texts they send out about the cost of missed appointments, I would definitely get it logged somewhere that it was the hospital's fault. You were there before time, ready and waiting.
You don't want a black mark against your name.

Go straight to PALS in that situation. Straight to their door! With your “Rip Off” parking ticket as evidence of your arrival time.

And tell them you’ll be speaking to your MP and writing to the Hospital Board CEO.

Arseholes without any conscience!
Also more work for your GP doing a new referral. No wonder the NHS is a shitstorm.

That expensive investigative equipment should be working 24/7 on shifts.

If you had been a boat migrant you’d have been chauffeured 200 miles for the appointment at taxpayers cost.
No delay for them !

I would complain but offer a solution. Something like a notice saying 'check in for 8.30 appointments only' that can be changed as the time goes on.

Or take a seat until your name is called.

@mmmmkakshch YANBU OP and you are right to be annoyed at what transpired. I have to say, however, that I would not have waited in that queue beyond my appt time - I would have grabbed a nurse as they came out to call another patient to explain my predicament, just so they knew I was there and waiting.
I must say though, I weep at the standard of NHS admin staff and their apparent lack of ingenuity. Yes, it's quite likely that receptionist had been left in the lurch by short-staffing and was probably pretty fed up, but she should have addressed the whole queue and asked you all to arrange yourselves in appt time order with the earliest first, regardless of your arrival time (I've also received outpatient letters stating not to arrive more than 10 minutes ahead of your appt time, but some people will just ignore this, or may have no choice if using public transport). The fact that the receptionist didn't even think about the cost to the NHS of those "lost" appts (because yours plainly wasn't going to be the only one) gives me the screaming abdabs!

This. On MN people love to make it the OP’s fault for not being assertive enough but in the real world I’m not sure it works like that.

See I think that this probably isn’t the case. I suspect 8.30 was the first (or in the first few) appointments and there were probably people in the queue in front of the OP who had appointments much later and had decided not to follow the advice of only getting there 10-15 mins before the appointment time (for quite understandable reasons).

If the receptionist had called the OP and maybe the person after her to the front there would then have been 15-30 mins to get everyone else checked in whilst they had their scans.