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Delay to appointments not acceptable

Posted By April2

"Delay to appointments not acceptable"

About: The Queen Elizabeth Hospital / Ophthalmology

(as a volunteer/advocate),

Patient was seen July 2014 and Consultant requested follow-up appointment in 6 months. An appointment was sent out to the patient for January 2015. This was inconvenient as she was abroad visiting family on this date.

She contacted QEH and was told that the next available appointment would be March 2015 I. e. 9 months from the original consultation not 6 as requested by the Consultant.

She has subsequently had two letters each saying due to unforeseen circumstances the clinic has been cancelled and a further appointment has been made.

The first letter put her appointment back to May and the second to July 2015 I. e. 12 months from the original consultation.

The patient has grave concerns regarding the timely monitoring of her eye condition and feels that this apparently indiscriminate delay to appointments is not acceptable.

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Responses

Response from The Queen Elizabeth Hospital 8 years ago
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital

Submitted on 05/06/2015 at 11:08
Published on nhs.uk on 06/06/2015 at 01:01

Thank you posting a comment about the difficulties this patient experienced in obtaining an appropriate appointment slot in the Ophthalmology clinic. I am sorry that this has now become such a protracted affair. Unfortunately appointment slots rapidly become filled due to the number of patients attending clinics and if an appointment is cancelled there is often no other available slot for some period of time. Added to this is the difficulty that clinicians obviously do not book leave or other absences 6 months or more in advance so there will always be some cancellations due to the non-availability of the doctor concerned. I will forward this to the Ophthalmology clinic so they are aware of this matter and should you wish to discuss this matter further please do contact me in person. Claire Roberts Associate Director of Patient Experience Tel: 01553 613459 or email: claire.roberts@qehkl.nhs.uk

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