"Broken brace clinic Wythenshawe Hospital"

I apologise if this seems trivial to people with serious illnesses. However, what I want to complain about is the appointment procedure and the Hospital's computer system, which I think is something that affects us all. Firstly, I have been taking my son to the orthodontic clinic for approx eighteen months. During the first visit I noticed what looked like an aged poster asking for patience, as they had a new computer system. This notice was still there on my visit today. This begs the question, how long does a computer system remain new and a viable excuse for bad practices?

Secondly, my son rang me from school last Thursday to report that his brace had broken while eating. I immediately rang the hospital appointment service as this was the only Tel No I had on me. They were brilliant and made an appointment for him at the broken brace clinic for 11:30 the next day. However, when we got to the hospital, the receptionist seemed in another world was very uncommunicative and had difficulty finding him on her system. When she asked us to sit down in the waiting area, I assumed that she had located his details. We waited for nearly an hour, during which time the other patients progressed through and more arrived. I approached the reception desk again (by this time the lady who had taken our details had disappeared) I asked a lady on the next desk if we were waiting in the right place, as it was an hour since we had registered.

This lady checked and told me they did not have his notes (even though he had attended a routine appointment exactly one week earlier with the consultant). This lady was great, very communicative and apologetic and contacted the orthodontic team who had no record of the appointment. We went though, were seen by the consultant who arranged for the brace to be repaired that day. She used a photocopied piece of paper, which she said would be added to his records. The orthodontic staff checked with reception that we could have an appointment for the following Tuesday (today) for a refit. That seemed great. The orthodontic nurse came back with us, by which time the reception had decided that there were no free appointments but agreed to double book him in at 11:30 on Tuesday.

We returned at 11.30 Tuesday (today), there was a different receptionist on duty, who could not find my sons appointment or his records. I explained about the problems the previous Friday and was told that she “would sort it" and that we were to sit down and wait. At midday I noticed that she had vacated her position and put up a notice that her reception was closed. Fortunately there was another station manned by the lady who had rescued us on Friday. I approached her and told her what had happened. She recognised us from Friday, checked and said there was no record of our appointment or the fact that we had registered in at 11:30 or his records. She asked us to wait around the corner while she checked what was going on. While we waited we heard her approach another lady who did a lot of shouting about how busy she was and that she would have to wait. She came back and apologised again then another lady came and confirmed who we had seen on Friday and who we normally saw for his regular appointments, and with whom we had made the appointment on Friday. She also said there was no record of my son’s appointment or his records or the fact that we were waiting to be seen. She also apologised and then asked us to come through to the orthodontic department. The orthodontic lady was great, very helpful, refit his brace and checked that we had a regular appointment made.

However I know that if my son had have been left on his own through all this he would have left on Friday in disgust less than forty minutes after he had not been seen. I am sure other not so persistent patients have also "bailed". Which for me proves that the hospital reception/ computer system has not improved and I do not think that the so called new computer is not a valid excuse for human error or bad administration procedures