to be seriously pissed off with hospital appointement line?

[littleducks]

have been diagnosed with a polyp which has caused me to be very miserable (constant heavy bleeding since end feb)

finally got letter through with ref so i can make an appointement with consultant clinic for assessment for its removal

the letter runs through two pages explaining how to book online, however in the small print at the end it reads 'online booking not available atm'

so theere is a phone number to ring, allegedly 9am-5pm Mon to Fri, i have been ringing sine 4.45pm on Fri and its voicemail with a full box

I wished they had just sent me an appointement then at least i had one however bloody inconvenient and didnt feel that every day i couldnt get through i was making the wait longer

maybe i am being unreasonable then?

i can leave a message now (so someone has emptied message boxbut wont answer phone) how rude would it be to leave one saying I am XXXXX, calling with booking number XXXX, could an appointement be ade for me please at xx hospital and a letter confirming this sent to me? You are supposed to leave a number for them to return call but then im prob wont be able to pick up so would just save hassle?

Message withdrawn

well i wont bother driving to hosp that makes appointements then that was my next move

phone ringing now, for good 5 min, then someone picked up tried to dial out then hung up, sigh

back top answer phone so person dialling must be turning voicemail on

great

Choose and Book is a fecking nightmare... I know coz I'm supposed to be using it here (am a medical secretary)

For the last 18 months my smart card to access the system has not worked. I have to get GPs to refer patients by writing an old fashioned letter and I slot people into clinic where I can.

The hillarious thing about this is that management from up high actually rang me to try and find out why my clinics ran so smoothly with no waiting lists and no complaints from patients at all. They wanted to use my methods as a 'model' for the rest of the Trust.

they were well pissed off when I told them that I'd abandoned Choose and Book to achieve this.

well i have gotten truley fed up and left a message asking for an appointement to be made and posted out to me

will see if this happens

Am in the same boat / voicemail box littleducks the number is busy tho they already have the GP request...grrr

Ah a man answered the phone (been ringing them since 9am) to say tho they have recieved the GP request it has to be 'Protocoled' by a Dr or senior radiographer and they will send out an appt, oh joy of joys, it is meant to be urgent as we suspect i have a leaking ovarian cyst and the pain isn't pleasent.

OP - ring PALS for your local hospital and tell them this. The appointment system is supposed to be accessible! I suspect that they don't have enough staff to answer the phone but that's their problem not yours. Just booking you an appointment and sending it out doesn't give you the choice you should have. I used to work in an appointments centre and the service you have described is very far removed from what we offer.

Littleducks - Hope that an appt comes through for you as YANBU.

I had to use choose and book recently, in reality there was no choice as only one of the three hospitals had any appointments on the system. I booked an appointment but got no confirmation and it was only by chance that I knew to got to the outpatients department (for a paediatric urology appt) as the telephone operator had mentioned it in passing. 'Tis a useless system!

littleducks - this is not choose and book, because they are open 7am - 10 pm. i think this is a different sservice but i would go back to your practice and ask them to sort it out!

I went to GP on Monday, he logged onto Choose & Book and made an appt there and then, checked I was OK with it, confirmed and printed it off. AND it's for 4 weeks away!

Update: I still have no appointement

Left several messages, gave my phone number to see if that would help but o call back

Mailbox is full 80% of the time

Spoke to PALs who gave me a dept manager number, she said she had been emptying mailbox as she ws aware it was full (i think they have bee presssing delete) as they are shortstaffed and manger not around next week, She couldnt get through on the phone so we will walk down and will give the my detail to make appointement to post out

I am so that this much time has been wasted

It is choose and book but is dealt with in house not by a call centre (i called them too in the hope they would help but they cant)

Well no call so prob no appointement today

This is so infuriating