"Outpatient visit let this place down"

My husband has had several major procedures at this hospital and for these, it cannot be faulted.

However, our recent visit to the outpatient clinic on 18/1/18 was less than satisfactory.

His appt letter was for 1-00pm and we arrived from Warrington at 12-45 and checked in electronically. The appt time on the screen was for 3-00pm.

We spoke to reception staff who said there had been a mistake and they would take his file through. Nobody came back to us to update us so at 1-30 I went back to reception to ask.

They went into clinic and returned to say not to worry, his file had been slotted in and we would not be waiting until 3-00.

We sat and waited until 3-10pm when I went to ask again. The receptionist was a little abrupt and said the clinic was running late. This was not the issue a was querying.

We eventually went in to see the Doctor at 4.05 and were out at 4-15, 3.5 hours later.

If someone had been more honest with us at 12-45, we would have gone away for some lunch and shopped for our evening meal rather than sitting for the whole afternoon in the waiting room. Neither of us had eaten since breakfast as we had come along directly from a morning appt at Warrington hospital.

My husband was exhausted by the time we got home at 5-00pm

The clinic was very busy that afternoon and as a health professional my, I fully understand the demands on NHS services. However, there is no excuse for dishonesty and poor communication. We were disappointed with this experience.

Regards

Ann