"Is the system more important than the patient?"

I had an appointment with the x-ray department at Monklands Hospital last week (Thursday 28th August), I was heading to Monklands on Friday 29th August, when I looked at my letter to see where I had to report to and noticed that my appointment had been the day before. I decided at this point to call the x-ray department to apologise for the missed appointment, who said that unfortunately I would need to contact my Consultant to re-refer me.

I then contacted my Consultant’s secretary who told me they can’t refer me again until the x-ray department write to them to confirm that I did not turn up, which they told me takes normally 7 days. You can imagine my frustration at this, because as soon as I noticed the mistake I tried to rectify it and not being someone who frequently if at all misses any hospital appointments, I was frustrated at the number of hoops I had to jump through.

To put some context around why I am writing this is that I am currently attending 3 different hospitals in Lanarkshire for various consultations and investigations, now given that this is my 3rd appointment in a 3rd different hospital in about 6 weeks and I still have another 1 to go, I think that making a mistake of a day of the week/hospital/reason for appointment was possible. I have also had 2 separate appointments arranged for my son.

I still am no further forward on what is happening regarding my care and given that my care is so widely spread across Lanarkshire I would be grateful if you could review this process for DNA’s (did not attend) given that some people have possible reasons which the hospital system can cause, either that or can my care be delivered in one site.