NHS rule about being late?

[Ceci693]

So my son had a physio appointment at the local hospital yesterday - he’s been waiting about 12 weeks: he’s 17 so he went by himself - cycled down after school. He had 40 mins to get there. But he went in the wrong wntrance and anyway long story short he was 5 mins late. I believe him as he’s very exact about things! But receptionist wouldn’t let him through: she said if you were more than 1 minute late the appointment was cancelled . He tried to reason with her and explained he came
atraight from school etc but she was adamant and he had to leave. Is this a new thing in the nhs? Bearing in mind that appointments don’t run on time any time I’ve been called for one - which is fine of course. He was quite upset and now has to wait at least 4 weeks - the woman said he would hear something in 4 weeks. What do you think? Is it a thing? And I do believe him as he’s very responsible - and time conscious

Why do you think that is?

Possibly (definitely) to do with patients turning up late and expecting to be fitted in?

@Ceci693 that's ridiculous.

There are rules then there is lacking all common sense.

If someone is late you see if the next person is there to be seen early. Then if the late person then arrives they can be seen after.

And given the appointment was more than 5 minutes long then when couldn't he have just had 5 minutes less of physio?

They will now have to spend admin time sending letters/emails out again.

Personally I'd put in a complaint.

He went from school! Think it was inflexible and jobsworth of them to refuse appointment for sake of 5 minutes. Even if he had left earlier, there are many reasons for being late etc traffic works, accident etc.

Dd used to see the eye clinic. We were always early- never seen on time. Our most memorable experience was when we checked in and managed to watch an entire Disney film before a nurse appeared and asked why we were there as the consultant was on holiday.
Shame the receptionist hadn't mentioned that when she booked us in.

I suggest you, or your son speak to PALS.

The receptionist was being more thn unreasonable and just like other people have said on here, the NHS can keep people waiting a long time to be seen.

The department may well have had a policy change, or the receptionist was having a bad dogs day but pals should be able to help you and your son with this.

Last time I was sat waiting in outpatients for my first of the day appointment at 9am and it took until 9:40 until someone bothered to mention that the consultant was delayed because of traffic on the motorway. No, not the same thing but the point is that there has to be give and take, and why is it so hard to communicate - it makes so much difference.

If every patient was 5 minutes late consistently it would be ok!

I think if he was genuinely 5 mins late for a 30 minutes appointment it's awful they didn't see him. Where I work we do publicise that if you are more than 10 mins late is the discretion of the HCP if you are seen. But as most appointments are 30 minutes if someone was 10 mins late you can still see them for 20 and get some therapy/ assessment or whatever is needed done? I would complain. I think they took advantage of a young person.

To be fair though all they will do is a short assessment, give him some pre printed exercises that you could get off you tube and send him home, it’s all they ever seem to do!!

Blimey that’s harsh. If we are running late ourselves we will see whoever’s waiting and so long as clinic is running we will accommodate late arrivals as we can. If you’re in the last patient slot you have 15 mins (as we build in a delay for XR/plaster room).

We won't not see people if we can help it as the scans they are attending for are very time critical and important. If someone is late we will accommodate them as much as we can. This then means we work through our lunch break and leave late. We do run late with our clinics frequently due to the sensitive nature of the scans we do and we want to make sure any questions are answered.

Someone posted about respect missing in the NHS it works both ways. We have had people turn up and hour late and kick off because we really couldn't find another slot for them. We have had people turn up half an hour late with no apology or care what being late causes. Others dont even bother turning up and then kick off when we say we can't see them for another two weeks.

I am sure you trust your son OP but I know 17yo's 5 minutes. It is likely it was the last appointment if 40 minutes after school....physios have children to collect from nursery too. My guess is he arrived at 16:13 for a 16:00 appointment with a physio who finishes work @ 16:30. Next time get him to leave school 30 minutes earlier.

@Neurodiversitydoctor so you are saying if he really was 5 mins late then, what, the alleged "1-minute" rule wouldn't have applied?
He'd still have been past this rule's deadline if he was 90 seconds late or 15 mins - either way, appointment cancelled, wait a month.

A lot of the time its not our patients fault. Many of them qualify for hospital transport and hospital transport is always an hour late. We cant just refuse to see them and quite often they have sepsis and have to be admitted which isnt a 5 minute job.
The problem is then that it makes us very late and a lot of the people waiting then get very abusive often violent even when we do our best to explain. Ive had chairs thrown at me before when a cardiac arrest in my clinic made me 2 hours late. We dont work on the hospital premises so we have to call 999 and do the initial resus.
It amazes me that people cant cut us a bit of slack under these circumstances.

@Gettingbysomehow would you say that the hospital transport is a key factor in the delay? Has this ever been attempted to be tackled to get to the root of the problem?

I don't know what happened and tbf none of us on here do. I am just relating my experience of both 17yos and physio outpatients...

1 minute is ridiculous. It took me 20 min to find the physio department at my local hospital (which was, i kid you not, in an out building right by the entrance! But the signs take you all the way through internal corridors, up and down 2 floors, to get to a building that is accessible from the road in 2 minutes...).

They need to allow at least 10 minutes. Particularly since I've never been to a hospital appointment that was actually running on time.

Goodness me yes. We send in incident forms on every single occasion this happens and its got worse not better. Its great when people come in early which a lot do because it means we can get them in before transport arrives and make some space.

I would say it depends what the physio needed to do. Your son absolutely shouldn't make the next patient late, that's unfair. If they needed 30 minutes to do whatever they needed to do with him, then him turning up 5 minutes late meant they couldn't fit in what they needed to do, and so getting him to rebook is fair. Having said that, when I have had physio in the past, my appointment has been a series of exercises. Having a 25 minute appointment instead of a 30 minute one, would have mean missing off an exercise or two, which would have been much better than missing the whole session.

I would definitely take up with the hospital.
Last year I had a physio Appt at my local hospital which allowing for traffic is 15 mins from where I work -I left 45 mins to get there to allow for parking - I got there after 15 mins but couldn’t park - rang and spoke to a person to advise them I was driving around trying g to get a space and by the time I found a space and walked to clinic I was just under 5 mins late - I went in straight away and just had my usual 30 min slot less 5 mins which I completely understood

I don’t know, the OP said he is very responsible and I think the parent is the best judge of that. He is almost an adult, and it is maybe good that he is independent.

But not adult enough to allow extra time.

Everybody knows that hospitals are notoriously difficult to find your way around. Some just don’t have enough parking and you need to park somewhere outside the hospital, get someone to give you a lift or go by public transport. You still need to get to your appointment with time to spare. I have often heard 10 mins early mentioned.

I work for the NHS and used to see patients at allocated times. I’d give about 15 to 20 minutes grace for late running buses, parking problems, trouble finding the department etc.

We allow 5 mins of a 15 minute appt.
I used to ‘squeeze them in’ or ‘see at the end’ and quite frankly I got fed up of bulllshit excuses and ungrateful patients and most importantly running late and giving up my family time for the NHS.

Now I’m strict and I’m known for coming to the waiting room and asking the bolshy, ‘I’m always made to wait’ (no your fecking not and how ironic you can’t seee why!!!) patient who demands to be seen, which patient they wish me to cancel so they can have two slots?!

Put in a complaint for that receptionist, how awful! My dentists appt’s twice I was seen 40mins after my actual appointment time! I used to get physio done and was never seen on time, it’s ok for the to be very late but can’t give us abit of grace