"I am very frustrated by the DART service"

About: NHS Devon / Devon Access and Referral Team (DART)

Posted by giant930 (as the patient), about a year and a half ago

I called DART to try and arrange an appointment. There was an answer machine message that just said call back later.
This happened several times and then when I called another day it said that staff training was in progress, so again I could not get to speak to anyone to arrange an appointment.
I am very frustrated by this service. How are patients meant to get through?

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frustrated

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Responses

Response from Susan Pearce , Project Support Manager , NHS Devon on 15/07/2010 at 15:24 We are preparing to make a change

Dear ‘giant930’,
Thank you for contacting us regarding your experience of our service, we welcome all feedback. I am very sorry that you’ve had such difficulty getting through to us. I’m not sure when you were calling but there were two incidents this week that led to us closing the phone lines altogether, once for an hour and a half on Tuesday and once for about an hour this morning (Thursday). This is not a regular occurrence and we would like to apologise to you and all patients that couldn’t get through at that time. We are in the middle of changing our phone system so that more patients can leave messages and hopefully these changes will stop this happening again.
Kind regards,
Susan
If you would like to talk to someone at DART about any remaining issues with your referral you can contact our Choose & Book Helpline on 01626 883888.