Did You Miss Appointment?

[MichaelJH]

Yesterday I had a face-to-face outpatients. The wheelchair qualifies me for patient transport. This typically gives you a two hour window. Anyway I was there early and as a result went in early. In fact I was finished before my appointment time. Apparently there is still an ongoing issue with people not turning up. My appointment was a cancellation that I got on Tuesday as I had notified them on Friday when a jobsworth took me back to base rather than my original appointment when they found they had the wrong destination. In reality they should have spoken with control and had the destination changed as there was still plenty of time to make the original appointment.

Apparently there is still quite an issue with people not turning up with a goodly percentage citing fear of CovID. As the NHS is in serious catch up mode please notify them in advance if you cannot make an appointment. If it is fear of CovID think very carefully before cancelling. It is probably safer now than any supermarket or pub!

[Thanksnhs]

Morning, I have had problems with appointment letters not arriving, whether they were not sent or lost in the post I will never no, I was accused of no show when I didn't even know I should have been there, how many times does this happen, why can't hospitals back it up with an email or txt message like the dentist and doctors do, it could save so much time and money on missed appointments and worry for patients getting taken off the list, that's what happened to me and I knew nothing about it, communication is not the NHS strong point char

[stillaboveground in reply to Thanksnhs]

Hi Thanksnhs, in my case it was the postman who took it to the wrong address, luckily the guy delivered it to me 2 days before the appointment. Take care. Ruth

[Thanksnhs in reply to stillaboveground]

I never got mine and they contacted my transplant hospital, not me! And they phoned knowing I never miss appointments and wondering why, it was resolved in the end but a txt or email would have prevented it happening char

[Alison_L in reply to Thanksnhs]

St George's are very good at sending texts. I normally get one the Friday before an appointment, and one the day before. Not so good at sending letters!

[Thanksnhs in reply to Alison_L]

That definitely is a better way to do it, I am in Scotland and none of the two hospitals I attend txt

[JudiHalf in reply to Thanksnhs]

Exactly the same thing happened to me, the first I knew was a letter saying I was being discharged as I hadn’t turned up for an appointment that I knew nothing about!I was given another appointment and when I turned up at the hospital they said it had been cancelled!

I wrote and complained and received an apologetic reply but never got to see anyone as Covid struck.

Email or text would be so much better.

[stillaboveground]

Hi Michael, I agree it's just good manners to let people know when you are unable to keep an appointment, when people are permanently texting etc on their phones maybe they could just squeeze a cancelation in. Take care. Ruth

[SpiritoftheFloyd]

I've just gone into Patient Access this morning to complete a repeat medication request, and spotted an Upcoming Appointment via telephone for next Tuesday! Totally unaware of this! I needed to ring up to book blood tests for the end of June so rang surgery and booked blood tests and asked what the telephone appointment was about - seems the in house pharmacist is going to ring me some time next Tuesday afternoon to review my medications. Seems someone forgot to send me a txt message!

[shopman]

Our NHS Trust rings 7 days before an appointment to make sure you are aware & are going, they also do a follow up to this 24 hours before the appointment.

[Maisie2014]

My last outpatient appointment at the hospital (in Oral Surgery) was packed. I was told the waiting room was full so I had to wait in the corridor with 4 others. I was the only one there who hadn’t taken a friend! There were notices everywhere telling you to attend alone but they were ignored. Not everyone was wearing masks. When the waiting room started to clear I was asked if I wanted to go in. I said I’d stay where I was (it was safer). I was eventually seen after an hour! I was glad to be discharged.

[MichaelJH Heart Star]

For my appointmentast Thursday I had two text reminders the day before. The second one included a request to wear a face mask to the appointment. The final line said you did not need to wear one for a telephone appointment! I trust that was added in a light hearted manner but can imagine a consultant trying to understand someone wearing a face mask at the end of a bad line!

From the replies it appears not attending for fear of CovID is no longer a major issue but communication is. I had one appointment where the letter arrived 90 minutes before and was unable to make it. The hospital (here even hospitals in the same trust do things differently) involved does not send text reminders for security(!) but will discharge people "just like that".