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Care Opinion

Could be kinder

Posted By handsethh43

"Could be kinder"

About: Sidwell Street Clinic / Exeter Sexual Health

(as a service user),

Unfortunately I had an awkward interaction with reception staff. I called to try and change an appointment and was told this couldn’t be done on the phone (fair enough). I was told to call in the morning. As my appointment was the next day and phone lines didn’t open until 09:15, I came in early to see if earlier appointment available. I was told that the way to change appointment was to leave message for the clinician.

This could have been done the previous day.

Whilst I understand the staff on reception have to deal with awkward clients, I found the member of staff to be a bit unkind/unreasonable. Things were out of their control but I think it could have been done in a nicer way. Also I think that if there hadn’t been a communication failure the day before there wouldn’t have been an unpleasant incident at all.

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Responses

Response from Colette Pearse, Admin Lead - Exeter Sexual Health Service, Sexual Health Service - Exeter, Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust 2 weeks ago
Colette Pearse
Admin Lead - Exeter Sexual Health Service, Sexual Health Service - Exeter,
Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 16/04/2024 at 18:08
Published on Care Opinion on 17/04/2024 at 08:43

Dear handsethh43,

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback following your recent communication with our service.

We are sorry to hear that you had an awkward interaction with staff when trying to cancel your appointment. As with other healthcare settings, we have different services based within the building and it sounds like you may have not got through initially to one of the regular team, which may explain the conflicting advice you were given re cancelling your appointment.

We have recently introduced an option to book/cancel appointments online which we’ve set up to offer more choice to patients as we recognise our phone lines can be busy and it’s not always easy to get through during the busy periods.

As a service, we strive to ensure we provide an approachable, empathetic and professional service to our all our patients and this is an important element of our team ethos. We are sorry you felt communication with the team could have been approached in a kinder way and will of course ensure this is fed back to the team as a learning outcome and so they are aware that your recent communication with the team could have been a more positive experience.

Once again, we’d like to thank you for your valued feedback.

Kind Regards

Colette

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