NHS Complaint - outcome ??

[catsruleok]

Hello, my GP sent my referral letter to the wrong hospital department. The hospital sat on the letter for 11 months and then sent it back to the GP with the correct department info. Obviously it was not triaged correctly.

If I complain what is likely to happen ? I have too much going on to spend the time and effort making a complaint & then received a "very sorry we have reviewed our procedures and it will not happen again reply".

I would like my case to put on the waiting list as if they had dealt with it in a timely manor.

Is that the likely outcome ?

TIA

Hi, I'm so sorry this has happened to you. In our service we wouldn't generally be able to back date a referral, unless it was an error on our part. It's not the fault of the service that should have recieved the referral. However waiting as long as you have may increase your priority level, depending on the nature of the referral. It would definitely be worth a conversation with the service to see what they can do.

Having worked in the NHS for over 15 years the point of error is the GP surgery not the department where the referral was meant to go to or received. I’m sensing it’s not an urgent referral so in that case Im afraid that’s probably all that will happen- ie if you complain you will get a letter of apology. It might be worth being specific in your complaint and request that the GP surgery expedite a private referral for you if that service exists. you have every right to request this since you have waited so long already.

If you are to remain under the NHS and unless you have someone within the GP surgery to advocate for you to expedite the referral it would be processed like everyone else so you would probably go back to the beginning of the waiting list unfortunately.

It’s shame you didn’t chase up the referral sooner which would have picked up on the issue sooner.

Agree fault is with gp, and for them to try to speed things up. However likely outcome is apology for delay and to join list now.

If the hospital sat on it for that long they are at fault as well and should have rejected it promptly or redirected to the correct service

When I was triaging referrals we had the choices of accepting, rejecting or redirecting a referral and there were strict time limits allowed for triage to take place so it would be worthwhile asking what happened to your referral once it reached the hospital

Thank you all for taking the time to reply.

Annoyingly I did call the department. They acknowledge the letter and explained it would be triaged then if accepted an appointment would be issued in 20 weeks (or similar time frame) I called after that period to find it had been sent back to the GP.

Even before the referral was sent I was aware that waiting lists was at least 2 years in that area - probably 3 years now

I take on board your comments regarding the GP but my son is going to need long term support so it is worth my effort complaining, to receive a blah blah blah apology when I will need to work closely with the GP ?

The GP has already apologised verbally and in an email saying that they were understaffed and an error did happen.

It is the outcome I am interested in not a witch hunt or platitudes. We all make mistakes.

I'm almost behind a full year on the waiting list and if complaining against the GP is my only course of action, as much as it sticks in craw I can't see it is worth taking it any further.