Royal Free Nurses

[Badflower]

Do others have trouble getting hold of the Royal Free hospital nurses. Whenever I leave a message I do not get a call back. Perhaps I’ve just been unlucky?

[LadyTrundle]

I agree. They used to be great but it's really fallen off in the last 2-3 months. There's message on their phone which says something like, 'our ways of working have changed, but go ahead and leave a message for now'. But then it's a week or more before they call back.

I've replied to emails (using the same email address that they used to contact me) and not received a reply - later told that was the wrong email address and to use another one.. Last week I had a message late one evening that I had a new letter on the portal - it was to tell me to expect a phone call the next morning at 11 am or maybe up to an hour later. At 1pm I call to see if I had to cancel my afternoon appointments as well, having heard nothing, and got told off for hassling them.

I do get that they are stretched and probably have lost staff and resources like the rest of the NHS. It's just a surprise after previous standards.

Luckily I got an emergency appointment locally about my latest finger infection and got treatment. If I'd waited for the Royal Free to follow up I would have gone 3 weeks without antibiotics!