To not slap anyone but to be somewhat cross with the NHS choose and book and appointments system in general?

[EccentricaGallumbits]

DD2 consultant appointment today. was supposed to have been 3 months since the last one but it had been cancelled and changed no less than 3 times making it 7 months since she was seen last.

Dr wants to see her in 3 months time. The next available appointment they could offer is 5 months away, that's if it doesn't get moved even further back again.

DD2 has an orthodontist appointment on Monday afternoon.

This morning a letter arrives telling me that my choose and book appointment for DD1's orthopaedic appointment (chosen and booked at a convenient time for us) has been cancelled and is now also on Monday in the same place as DD2's appointment but 5 hours before DD2s. Meaning a few round trips of about 15 miles each way (2 hours by bus - shite parking at hospital).

I work for the NHS. I know it's not perfect. I know it is free at the point of access. I know it is understaffed and over stretched. I believe in the general principles and do think it's quite marvelous but......

would it be terribly unreasonable to be a little cross and frustrated with the system which so obviously isn't working? I promise I didn't slap anyone.

lol
can you at least ring up & see if theycan change the time of oneof them?

Tried that but the alternative is yet another delay of months.

can you not ring the hospital directly? I think I've done that in the past with DS's ENT appointments

I've rearranged my day so Monday isn't so bad now.

It does piss me off though when a consultant says 'Yes, I need to see her in 3 months' then there isn't an appointment available for 5 months and I know that one will be put back 2 or 3 times (because that always happens).

I think YABU if you don't want to slap someone. (Wonders who came up with the idea for choose and book in the first place.) I would be cursing my eyeballs off.

If it happens again might be worth ringing up and explaining. Maybe one of them could h swap you to last on the morning list or first in the afternoon?

It's pants.

I have a bad back, I saw a specialist last March and had an MRI. It came back showing a duff disc and a growth on the base of my spine pressing on the nerve root. The consulatant then wanted a CT scan to see if he could put quartizone (sp) and local anaesthetic into the nerve. That came through for October. In January I still hadn't heard anything about a follow up appointment so rang up. "oh, we have no record of you needing to come back." So, eventually they sent an appointment for March 15th. This was then changed for April 5th and last week to 5th May. Meanwhile, I am living on tramadol and diclofenac and spending £35 a fortnight on physio.

Oh well, I do know the NHS is a wonderful thing and serves millions well, but argggh, my back hurts.

Here finisheth the rant!

I don;t think I really understand the NHS system yet, so if you need to see a specialist you pick your own appointment but they then push it back regularly? I don't understand, shouldn't this only happen if there are a lot of emergencies that particular day?
Could you say you want to see some other specialist if they don't have an appointment after, lets say, the specified three months?
Sorry if I sound ignorant but I am new to the whole system here.

But yeah, YANBU to be upset about the extra time, the extra money and annoyance to be honest

Sorry Eccentrica. I've just found your other post. Wasn't taking the piss. Think we might have the same sense of humour though.

s'allright orinoco. I got over it at about post 32 - various others didn't though.

GermanMum, it works like this.

Consultant: I'll see you in 3 months

You to reception: Can I make an appointment in 3 months?

Receptionist: Ok, here is your date. See you in 3 months

one month later

Consultant to six other patients: I'll see you in 2 months.

Receptionist to Consultant: Your list is full

Consultant: OK, bump all these people along.

Then you get a letter with your new appointment and this keeps on happening until either the list isn't full (never happens) or you are one of the people who isn't bumped.

My consultant crams her list and spends ages with each patient so she is always about 2 hours behind, even for 9.30 appointments. If she shoves you into a different clinic she phones you so you can discuss any problems without having to wait for the next clinic. She is lovely.

Mowcop WRITE TO YOUR MP- it worked amazingly well for my mum when she had a bad back and suffered exactly the same way you are. Her appointment miraculously appeared within 2 weeks. Am so glad I work in Government and know this is the way to get something done- shouldnt be that way though.

Hope your back bears up until it gets seen to.

The problem is a system that was introduced by people who didn't/don't/never will understand how things actually work in the NHS. The idea that no-one should wait more than x number of weeks from GP referral to consultant out-patient appointment is, on paper, a noble one. But people don't easily fit into neat categories. Consultants might have the ability to grade referrals as urgent or routine, but in the recent past "urgent" meant the consultant telling me (the secretary) to get the patient in to the next available clinic, and "routine" could be many weeks down the road. In the new system, even if a consultant makes that distinction, any new "routine" referral still has to be seen within x number of weeks.

In order to meet those targets, follow-up appointments get cancelled and possibly moved to months away. And yet those follow-up appointments can be more urgent than routine referrals, but even consultants can do nothing about that. Unfortunately the NHS is no longer about quality of care, it's about numbers.

C+B is one of the biggest piles of festering wankstain shite ever invented.

As no-one is allowed to wait more then x number of weeks for an appointment, you are not allowed to CHOOSE (for eg) your local hosp if they are full up.
You CAN "choose" to go on a waiting list for an appointment but then you don't count in the statistics.
Or you can go to a different hospital that is a faff to get to and they don't have your notes.
It really is a pile of arse.

(I'm not keen, can you tell? )

Completely agree with uglymugly. I have just left the NHS today, completely fed up with such a target drive, non-patient focused institution and very sad that it has deteriorated to this extent

spitandpolish thank you! It can be hard to udnerstand different systems sometimes and it seems to be quite different from where I am.

I wanted to see a specialist last year for something urgent but was told I couldn't be referred and even if by the time I would get an appointment it would be too late. It sounded quite weird to me and scared me a bit.

Cancelling of follow up appointments seems so silly. if I would rule the world it would be a first come first serve basis. You make a follow up appointment you have it, unless that day there are people running into the surgery needing extremely emergylike attention. But I guess it will still be a while

Did you point out to the doc that last time they had said come back in 3 months and it was actually 7? And if so, what did they say?

Next time, might be worth saying the problems that you have had getting appointments withing the timescales they specified and find out what the ramifications are for your dd if she does have to wait for 7 instead of 3 months. One thing if appointment is a week or two late. Or even a month - but 4 months when you are supposed to be seeing them at 3 months must be scary.

sorry, tiny hijack. glitterkitty I rang the appointments lady and she said the consultant has cancelled the April clinic as he "is away" and she was trying to get him to do a Saturday morning to catch up. Good luck with that!