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Waiting at the patient cattlemarket

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"Waiting at the patient cattlemarket"

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I had to wait 2 and a half hours for an pre-surgery '11:30am' appointment. Then for the post-surgery appointment I waited 2 and three quarter hours before leaving without being seen due to getting very stressed and anxious at the long wait. I asked among the other patients and about half a dozen of us were all booked for the same timeslot. I rebooked for the following week but was unable to make that appointment on time ( I rang to say I was going to be half an hour late), and was told to rebook again - this time three weeks later. I suppose I should allow at least 3 hours wait next time, but why can't the booking staff make realistic appointments rather than herding us all in like cattle to wait for hours?

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Response from Uch Macmillan Cancer Centre 10 years ago
Uch Macmillan Cancer Centre

Submitted on 17/09/2013 at 16:58
Published on nhs.uk on 18/09/2013 at 04:00

I was so sorry to read about your recent experience whilst attending our outpatient department within the Macmillan Cancer Centre. These clinics can experience delays due to the complexities of the consultations. It is difficult to gauge how long each patient will require at each visit as the needs of our patients are quite variable. Clinics can become overbooked due to last minute urgent additions and patients that simply cannot wait for clinical reasons. We do try to limit numbers as best we can. We are endeavouring to communicate delays in clinic more affectively by working with the Cancer Centre nursing team whom should keep you up to date with any delays on the day and the reasons for it. Some patients will be booked into the same time slots as there are multiple clinicians in clinic. We are working through a "productive outpatients programme" to help improve some of these key areas so I do hope that you start to see some of those changes in clinic soon.

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