"Extending the referral cut of time"

I was referred into women's physio team at Lewisham Hospital in Jan this year (I had previously been a patient, but my treatment was disrupted by the arrival of COVID in 2020, and as a result I had to go back to my GP and be re-referred into the system.

Today I received a letter at the beginning of Sept, asking me to phone in to make an appointment, with an emboldened sentence "IF WE DO NOT HEAR FROM YOU WITHIN 10 DAYS OF THIS LETTER WE WILL ASSUME YOU NO LONGER REQUIRE TREATMENT AND YOU WILL BE DISCHARGED FROM THE SERVICE".

I rang immediately, only to find that I had indeed been removed from their system already. I have been replaced back on to the system, and an appointment has been arranged, but I tried to give feedback that a 10 day cut off is incredibly short, when you have been waiting for months for an appointment.

Many people go on holiday for a fortnight and could miss that deadline - in my case, it was the late arrival of the post that was the issue (which Lewisham should have known about, as South London post delays have been well publicised).

But I was rather surprised by the defensive response I received on quite gently offering feedback that 10 days was really a very short cut-off for a patient to potentially have to re-start the whole process of getting into the service they needed.

The person I spoke to was adamant that this has always been the policy (I have never received a letter with this noted on before) and is entirely reasonable. I was disappointed that this staff member was not interested in hearing why the policy of removing people quickly from lists might be a problem for patients.