"The fact that my daughter will ..."

What I liked

The fact that my daughter will now be treated elsewhere.

What could be improved

I took my daughter for an appointment with the plastic surgeon only to be told that the appointment had been rescheduled. When I asked why I had not been informed it was initially blamed on my GP (who went on to make his own formal complaint). I was then told they may have used on old address by mistake. We saw the surgeon a couple of weeks later and were told that my daughter must go to the Children's in Birmingham. However, when the referral was made they used the wrong address again, resulting in my daughter missing an appointment and having to wait an additional month to be seen. I had been told that once the records had been amended on the computer the mistake should not happen again. Of course, human error is inevitable but it is important to remember that the patients are not just numbers. My daughter is just 9 years old. She missed school to attend appointments, only to be turned away the first time and then told she must begin the whole process again at another hospital. She is extremely anxious to have missed her first scheduled appointment with the new surgeon and her anxiety is ongoing because a process that should have taken a few weeks has taken a number of months and she can see no resolution to her problem. Had I not taken the initiative to contact the relevant depatrment at the Children's she would have been dismissed as a time-waster and not received another appointment at all. This is unacceptable and administrative incompetence that impacts on a child's life. She deserves better.