to be cross that five weeks after a hospital appointment i havent had a letter back!!??!!

[lottiejenkins]

My son had an appointment with a geneticist from Addenbrookes at an outreach clinic at Ipswich on the 4th May. I asked the doctor to write to me outlining what he had said(very complicated stuff) and he assured me he would!! I rang the appointments lady two weeks ago and she said she would pass the message on that i was still waiting for the letter. I ring again this morning and the same lady i spoke to two weeks ago says i need to speak to the doctors secretary!! Why didnt she tell me that and give me the number two weeks ago? I have just rung up and the secretary and she thinks my ds's notes are still in the doctors office. I have had to chase it all up as he has another appointment on Friday which his residential school are taking him too and they need some info from the genetics appointment to take with them!!! I am fed up having to chase everybody for everything all the time!!!

maybe i am being unreasonable then!!

my 22yr old daughter is an audio typist for nhs. It isn't unusual for there to be a 4wk backlog of tapes, due to the number of letters and not enough staff. Oh, and she is now being made redundant due to cutbacks, so I guess things will not improve :-(

This is really frustrating for the doctors and nurses as well. One thing that might help is making a complaint through PALS who will help. It is only through people making complaints that the managers will realise that doctors and nurses really need the secretaries and audiotypists to do their jobs properly.

I dont want to rock the boat too muc as my son and i are relying on the doctor to refer him for genetic tests, i dont want to upset him if you see what i mean, i just need the letter!!!

It took 3 months for me to get a letter from my consultant

We (I am a doctor) don't treat people any better or worse for making complaints! :-)

If anything, we sometimes ENCOURAGE people to make complaints because it is sometimes the only language that managers understand. If people are complaining, then they should be looking at why and if anything can and should be done about it.

Contacting PALS doesn't go down as a complaint anyway, but might help you get the ball rolling. I've worked in both those hospitals (not in Genetics) and found them to be helpful to both patients and doctors.

They have cut the number of sec support staff in the nhs to the bare minimum. Sometimes they even outsource letters which can take weeks to get back to the secs.

YANBU. But you need to complain to PALS.