"Totally Incompetent"

Took my elderly, disabled mother for an appointment with the rheumatologist on 28/1/14. On arriving at reception desk was told we had come on the wrong day, there was no rheumatology clinic that day, despite appointment card showing 28/1/14. When the receptionist checked the computer, the appointment had been made for 28/1/13, (before my mother had ever been referred). She rang Hartlepool hospital to see if they had any appointments, they told her to tell me to take my mother to Hartlepool hospital in February. When I said we couldn't make it on that particular day, due to work commitments, she said I would have to ring them back and cancel that appointment, but we wouldn't be seen until August at the earliest. I said it was her error, she could ring them back, so she did then passed the phone to me to explain. Spoke to a very snooty woman, who said if the February appointment was cancelled we would have a very long wait and I shouldn't have booked it if it wasn't suitable. I explained I didn't book it., the receptionist at Peterlee booked without ever checking if it was a suitable day. It was only when I said I was planning on making an official complaint, miraculously an appointment at Peterlee in February was offered.