"Difficulty in obtaining appointment"

We have a huge volume of calls into the Pain management Unit on a daily basis when patients are calling us to change their appointment or to book a follow up or treatment appointment. Unfortunately the current switchboard is unable to manage this high volume in a timely way.

To reduce the volume of callers to the Unit we have introduced a booking service on reception and so some patients who require certain treatments receive their next appointment as they leave the Hospital. However, this has not fully addressed the problem. Please accept our apologies it must be frustrating when you are unable to reach us.

We have tried several ways to improve caller access with answer phones and diverting calls to different areas within the Pain Management Unit but this has only improved the situation slightly and so does not benefit all callers. The Trust has recognised that the Hospitals have out grown the current system in place and so is soon to replace the switchboard. This new switchboard will be able to manage many more calls coming in to the Hospitals and direct callers to the appropriate departments reducing the waiting times for callers.

Thank you for raising this concern. Your comment has been passed to relevant department who will make sure that this is looked at. Your feedback is extremely helpful in improving our services so thank you for taking the time to leave a review.