Outpatient Appointment Woes

[MikeyBikey]

The use of tech surrounding outpatient appointments is abysmal. At least once a month I have to rearrange an outpatient appointment as it overlaps an existing appointment. Only once have I had two in the same hospital at different times with time for coffee in-between. The problem is Hospital Trusts seem to have no central appointment system so, for instance, I am on three appointment databases in the area where I live that do not cross-reference each other. When I asked why I was told Patient Confidentiality! Utter tosh! Patient Transport know which clinic you are attending so they can take you there.

Then this morning I spent nearly an hour getting through about the appointment | should not have. I mentioned a week ago I had Ophthalmology appointments last Monday and today. This was sorted last Monday and all the checks were done and I was told today's appointment was cancelled but then got a reminder text over the weekend which is why I called this morning not wanting a DNA (Did Not Attend) letter which happened with a different clinic a year ago when an appointment was rebooked but the clerk did not cancel the original one! I suspect my GP surgery will get another one!

Trusts need to sort these issues out - there were less problems when they used large legers before computers!

Another annoyance is I have a home visit tomorrow but the only time they will give me is anytime between 8;00 and 18:00!

 

[Alan44]

Jeez @MikeyBikey it doesn't get any better for you does it.

I guess all you can do is hang in there

Take care
Alan

 

[rebrascora]

I think our area has a central hospital appointments booking office. I only get one appointment a year with the consultant and then retinal screening, so apart from them making appointments and then cancelling and re booking, I don't have any issues as it is very unlikely they would clash.

My current outstanding appointment was for 26th of this month with my consultant but then got cancelled and rearranged for 10th December again with my consultant and then that was cancelled but subsequently got another letter saying I had an appointment on the 10th still but with a new consultant and then another letter cancelling that and giving me an appointment with the new consultant on 24th December! Each time a letter in the post all for one "annual" appointment. Must be costing them a small fortune in postage!

It must be really frustrating for you with so many regular hospital appointments and relying on patient transport will mean you can probably only manage one a day and of course gone are the days when you could just ring someone up and sort it over the phone. Thankfully I don't have to deal with CAPTCHA or whatever it is, which has to make it 10x more frustrating. Can only sympathise.

 

[Proud to be erratic]

Yep, sympathies from myself also @MikeyBikey.

The use of tech surrounding outpatient appointments is abysmal.

The problem is Hospital Trusts seem to have no central appointment system so, for instance, I am on three appointment databases in the area where I live that do not cross-reference each other. When I asked why I was told Patient Confidentiality! Utter tosh!

Trusts need to sort these issues out - there were less problems when they used large legers before computers!

As I reply to your post I'm superficially listening (background wash really) to Sir Keir Starmer telling an audience in Glasgow at the Interpol Conference how data sharing will solve numerous problems and how proud he is that "My Government" will invest heavily in IT to achieve this ....

So much tech is abysmal - relative to what it could and should do. It seems to get worse with time in terms of accuracy and promptness of delivering an end product service; the NHS has some of the worst collections of computer systems, a muddled "collage" of snapshots that randomly generate out of date information. Yet these IT systems increasingly demand HCPs spend more and more time typing on keyboards and glued to computer screens creating reports in formats that are excessive in length, with endless duplications/ repetitions and made unnecessarily illegible to the Patient by its length. Invariably 3 pages long to say something that could be said in half a page. The ultimate insult for me is when I'm told that a blatantly incorrect bit of data can only be corrected by the person who added that wrong detail; a person who no longer works at that Department and only a formal review through the Department can get this error changed. Data Configuration Control gone mad.

I want to say I hope your challenges will ease, indeed greatly improve. I really do hope for that outcome. But I won't hold my breath. Last week's budget is going to pour billions more into a broken NHS process (a definition of insanity in business parlance) and despite some sensible media questioning no-one seems to have an answer to where the billions will be spent in the NHS, nor what sort of reforms might even be envisaged

 

[AndBreathe]

I'm fortunate not to have an over-bearing number of hospital appointments to juggle. It must be exhausting for you @MikeyBikey . I do, however violently agree that out NHS IT systems seem to be a disjointed cluster thingamajig at best.

In July I had an episode whereby over a day or so, I had visible blood in my urine. GP erred on the side of caution and packed my off onto the 2-week cancer pathway. Investigations cleared me of the Big C, but showed what is believed to be a cyst somewhere behind my bladder.

That got me packed off onto the Gynae Big-C pathway.

After further unltrasounds, CTs and an MRI, it is still considered to be a cyst, but it cannot be ascertained from where it emanates, so I'm now waiting to see a specialist gynae/gastro surgeon with a view to get rid of the thing.

Late August I was discharged from the Gynae Oncology to Gynae. Are you following so far?

Since that time, I have been telling person after person that I am still on the Gynae Oncology waiting list. Gynae consultant wants me off there (as do I0, but can anyone be galvanised into actually actioning it? Of course not.

Frankly, I have stopped asking and will deal with it, again, when an appointment lands on the mat.

The waiting list is estimated at 13 weeks. I've been on it a couple of days short of 16 weeks, so hopefully it'll be soon.

Conversely, I have an issue with a cyst in a joint, on a finger. I had surgery on the same thing, on the other hand last year. GP referred me on 21st October and I see the hand surgeon on Friday - 19 DAYS later.

You honestly couldn't make it up.