"Given an appointment with no explanation"

This is a story about duplication and apparent mistakes made in the Leeds Teaching Hospitals paediatric outpatient booking process that has led to a poor use of resources and confusion from a parent perspective.

Last week, and out of the blue, I received an appointment for my son for an outpatient clinic in relation to paediatric surgery. Not only did I receive this letter once, I received an exact duplicate letter, posted separately on the same day. A minimal waste of resources if this is an exception but not if it happens routinely. What has gone wrong with the booking system that this has happened?

Secondly, and more importantly, I had (and still have) absolutely no idea what this appointment pertains to. There is no indication on the letter and on speaking to the secretary, all they could tell me is that it is a routine 12 month follow up appointment. My son has had several hospital appointments well over a year ago, and from which he was discharged, as far as I can recall. There was definitely never any discussion about surgery. He certainly does not need any follow up and again a 12 month routine follow up seems like a bizarre waste of resources, if it is not needed. I had to spend half an hour on the phone to cancel my appointment and to try and get an explanation. The secretary was not able to tell me what the appointment related to.

If I had just not turned up for the appointment then that would have been a wasted session that costs the NHS Trust money and stops someone else attending who actually needs the appointment.

So in summary, I have received two duplicate letters out of the blue for an appointment which I know nothing about and still do not know what it pertains to. I’d be happy to share more details if the LTHT would like to look in to this to find out more with a view to preventing this happening again.