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Follow up consultation

Posted By Jean4

"Follow up consultation"

About: Pilgrim Hospital / Ear, Nose and Throat

(as the patient),

I had to rebook my appointment with ENT as it was our daughters graduation . The original appointment was a telephone consultation. I was surprised to find the new appointment was face to face but was pleased as my symptoms had become significantly worse since my original tests.

I arrived at the hospital which was clearly indicated on my letter that I was to attend the department at pilgrim hospital only to find that I had been sent the wrong letter and in actual fact my appointment was a phone call! The staff did arrange for me to use one of their rooms to take the call which lasted all of a few minutes. But considering where I live and it was a 60 mile round trip I had not only wasted my time but also a considerable amount of money on fuel! Apparently the mistake is a usual occurrence. This needs looking at especially in the current financial situation!

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Responses

Response from Laura Kearney, Outpatients Operational Services Manager, Outpatients, United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust nearly 2 years ago
We are preparing to make a change
Laura Kearney
Outpatients Operational Services Manager, Outpatients,
United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust

Submitted on 05/09/2022 at 17:08
Published on Care Opinion on 06/09/2022 at 09:35

Good afternoon

Firstly may I send my apologies for the mix up, wasted 60 mile journey and the time taken to attend the Pilgrim - all contributing to your poor experience.

Unfortunately this can happen if the wrong letter type is chosen as there are three options for each appointment depending on the medium of the consultation (face to face, telephone or video). However without personal details I am unable to say if this was the case for your appointment.

We are currently reviewing our processes for Outpatient appointment letters and hope that by making easier will reduce these incidents and improve our patient experience.

I would be very grateful if you would like to share your details with me or our Patient Experience team so I can investigate further and provide you with a more personalised response.

Kind Regards

Laura Kearney

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Response from Laura Kearney, Outpatients Operational Services Manager, Outpatients, United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust 16 months ago
We have made a change
Laura Kearney
Outpatients Operational Services Manager, Outpatients,
United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust

Submitted on 16/12/2022 at 12:42
Published on Care Opinion at 13:07

Since my previous reply we have made some changes to our Outpatient appointment letter templates with a new naming convention, making it much simpler for our booking clerks to select the correct letter for the appointment medium (face to face, video or telephone consultation).

In addition we ran an internal communication campaign highlighting the correct process for rebooking an appointment, which if followed ensures the intended consultation medium is reflected in the appointment letter.

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Update posted by Jean4 (the patient)

Thank you for looking into my complaint and for implementing a change. Hopefully, this will prevent anyone else attending an appointment that is a telephone consultation.

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