"I came here for an outpatient ..."

What I liked

I came here for an outpatient appointment for my back problem.

I found this hospital to be very clean, in fact spotless! The hospital is well maintained.

The staff - from the nurses, cleaners to the receptionists - are friendly and approachable, giving good advice.

I found that I wasn't kept waiting for very long for my appointment as they were on time.

What could be improved

The referral system - I can't see a consultant as apparently they chose not to see me for some reason that I have not been told. I found this to be very distressing and am very dissapointed in the way I have been treated in this respect. Get rid of this system that is failing the patients and input a proper system where all patients can and will see a consultant, at least once, rather than never. The NHS is here to help every patient, not a minority.

Complete lack of communication - Nobody sent me a letter even though, apparently I was on the consultant's waiting list to tell me that I was on his list and how long I expected to wait or that I wouldn't be seen by him. Then they sent me a letter saying I was sent to see someone else (not a consultant?) on the consultant's behalf which I was unhappy about. If I was on his waiting list, why didn't he see me?

I'm still waiting to see a consultant now but know I probably will never see one here because of the awful system which should be disgarded completely.

I feel that my back problem has not been taken seriously and spines are very important and I am still not able to do anything and am suffering for lack of seeing a consultant that will investigate and maybe treat my condition.

More tests would've been a good idea as I had an X-ray and an MRI but the other person who was a physiotherapist didn't know what was wrong with my back entirely so now I still don't know what my condition is and what's causing the pain and feel greatly ignored as they didn't even order any more tests in the hope of finding out more as they say the MRI only shows a degenerated disc which could be the cause of the pain or may not be.