to think that it's not rocket science for hospitals to have a decent appointment system.

[hatwoman]

I'm really annoyed. Today, 19th November, I receive a letter, dated 23rd October, cc'd to my consultant, asking me to contact them about the appointment with a nurse that I failed to attend on 21st October.

perhaps the reason I failed to attend it was something to do with the fact that the only letter about appointments I 've had in the last year was one telling me I had an appointment on the 2nd December?

I just don;t understand how they manage to make mistakes like this. Genuinely don;t understand. both the first mistake but also the second one whereby they didn;t realise, on checking, that the leter they sent had said 2nd Decemeber and the fault was, in fact theirs.

bit of a trivial rant I know. but failing to attend appointments is bang out of order and something I really really would not do. so to be accused of it really riles me. (and this has happened twice now; not to mention the period of 2 years when I fell behind a proverbial radiator and didn;t have any appointments or contact from them at all).

YANBU, I know a lot of people on the other thread think that more than one notification of an appointment is treating adults like children, but mistakes do happen and Royal Mail cannot be relied upon at the best of times.

Feel for you...

Perhaps the appointment letter for 2nd December isn't in your casenotes.

Perhaps they didn't have your casenotes at the clinic so didn't see the letter.

The system is probably Ok, it may well be the people running it.

i see an orthopaedic consultant once a year and they block book they appointments in hour blocks. it really annoys me as you can wait ages to be seen, especially if the last hour has over run.
i remember having an appointment when my DD was 4 days old and they wouldn't change it, so i has to shlep to the hospital dragging DD, i was full of stitchs and my DH doesn't drive so i had to, and i ended up waiting 2 hours to be seen. i was only in there 5 minutes as it's a check up, to check the progression of a long standing condition. grrrrrr

Do you mean that more than one patient is given the same appointment time heather? The problem is demand - if you don't overbook the patients end up having to wait longer for their appointments.

I used to do it all the time when I worked for a rheumatologist. Our patients used to prefer to sit in out patients for a couple of hours and be seen, than have to wait 6 weeks for their appointment. It wasn't ideal by any means but the lesser of two evils.

Surfermum, I genuinely don't get why this system is used. Would it not be better to give 12 patients appointments with a five minute interval than to give 12 patients the same time (assuming an average 5 minute appointment).

I'm waiting for a hearing test appt for DS1.

I got one letter saying appt made on 1st Dec. Lovely.
A week later I got a letter saying ignore last letter we made appt for you in wrong dept. Right dept will be in touch.

Another letter arrived from correct dept saying I need to go online and make my own appt.
I went online with the ref no given to me and got the message 'no appts available in foreseeable future'

I rang to check and was told yes, no appts available, we will call you when more come up. In the mean time I was told I would most likely receive a letter telling me that I had failed to book an appt as requested. She said ignore this its sent out automatically to everyone even when there are no appts

blimey stewie - you need to be careful - or someone will be testing her tonsils and doing lord alone what to her ears.

surfermum - there are all sorts of explanations but the bottom line is that administrators/those in charge of appointments need to send the same piece of info (ie the time and date of my appointment) to 2 (sets of) people: me and the nurse and perhaps some other adminstrators who support her in running her clinic. and I just can't see how they muck this up.

oh and to heather - mine is similar - yearly appointment for long-term condition. I used to expect to wait 2 hours and - as long as it was a work day for me (ie kids in childcare) I used to oddly look forward to it. a complete bona-fide excuse to sit on my bum and read for 2 hours. but recently they've got very good and I rarely have to wait. (I think thisis because I've been downgraded from conultant to nurse. which is good because it means I'm not very ill )

computer cockup error, i would imagine.
annoying -or even typing mistake.
it happens. bloody annoying

I don't get why our hospital sends out a letter saying "ring this number to make your appointment" then when you ring the number it is an answer phone saying "leave your name and reference number and we will send out the next available appointment". So why don't they do that in the first place?

Of course I have done that and they still haven't sent me an appointment.

I do actually know the answer to all of this and it is to do with waiting times, and when you are actually classed as "waiting" but that i all a bit dull and I would much rather complain about it

Who knows what happened hatwoman? Don't get me wrong, it's not good at all that it happened, but having worked in the NHS for so long perhaps I've come to expect that sometimes things do go wrong - and the person often on the receiving end of the blame isn't at fault.

Some people that run appointment systems are really not that good at their job and make lots of mistakes.

Perhaps the nurse booked the appointment for October herself, and forgot to tell the administrator so no letter was ever sent. I've known that happen.

Maybe the person responsible for sending out your letter went off on long term sick leave and the managers decided that they weren't going to get anyone to do her job until she'd been off for a month ... by which time things were in such a muddle that mistakes got made and letters not sent.

I've known all these things happen.

Are they still expecting you in December?

good question! I'm not sure...I rang the number on the letter which, fortunately imo, was the actual nurse's number - not the central appointments people, and left her a message - so I'll just wait to hear back. you're right that things like staff changes and sickness and personal error (probably stemming from overwork) are all possible explanations - and I don;t feel particularly annoyed with the people. tbh I'm just glad that this nurse exists - 8 years ago when I really really needed a specialist nurse, who could give me useful guidance and a bit of support and info (rather than the valid but limited technical stuff you get from a consultant whose time you don;t want to "waste") there wasn;t anyone. and then the hospital forgot I existed anyway - and I suspect that wouldn't happen now.

Actually, the 'ring up and make your own appointment' system is part of the governments 'wonderful' Choose and Book scheme, where patients can Choose their own hospital and then Book an appointment that suits them.

It rarely works.

yes, they book all appts at say 9am, 10am etc fecking annoying!!