Ringing around the NHS maze

I can remember when your GP wrote to your local hospital and in turn they would send a date for an appointment.

If this was not acceptable, you would ring them and alter it.

Now, your GP sends a letter to who knows who and you get a reply after about a week or so, containing reams of paper and information, informing you of all the wonderful and marvellous opportunities that await you, including choice of hospital, etc.

You are then given the number to ring if you just wish to stay local and they will give you the appointment date suitable to yourself.

This is where the fun starts.

You go through the usual options and after you choose, you are informed of your position in the queue, which can be anything up to 11.

You hang on and then realise that each caller is taking anything up to 10 minutes.

As I am a full-time carer, this does not go well with my other duties, which are many.

It took a whole day on and off for me to get through, and after all the paraphernalia of proving who I was, plus giving "passwords" and only an eight-minute wait, I was given a date, which I was told was the first available and was for six weeks' time.

Last week, I received a letter informing me that my appointment had now been put back another month, that is now January, and told that if I wish to alter it, "please ring the number supplied".

You've guessed it, the same number.

Due to the length of time per call, I would imagine that they have only one person on the switchboard making these appointments for a vast area.

I was then given the number of the doctor's appointments secretary, but told that she only worked Tuesdays and Fridays.

I tried on and off all day Tuesday, but this person was not available and her extension was on answerphone every time, and then I was sent around various departments, all to no avail.

What bright spark thought up the system in the first place?

Obviously, someone getting paid far in excess of that lone appointment maker who, by the way, must get fed up with the flak she receives on a daily basis.

I have now been advised that if I am not satisfied with the later date and the problem is that bad, I must go back to my GP and get him to try again.

S Burvill

Strathmore Road

Worthing

NOTE: All letters must include a name and address which can be withheld by request.

Write in to Readers' Letters, Worthing Herald series, Cannon House, Chatsworth Road, Worthing, BN11 1NA, or email the Herald.

-------------------------------------

Click here for more readers' letters.

Where are you? Add your pin to the Herald's international readers' map by clicking here.

Email the Herald: [email protected]

Click here for the Herald staff directory.

Want to read this page in French, German, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Urdu or 48 other languages? click here for Google translate.