"Shoddy Organising"

I have been an outpatient of my consultant at Bootham Park Hospital for over four years now, and I have consistently been inconvenienced and distressed by appointments being cancelled or incorrectly organised. The most recent occasion was today. After arriving at the hospital and giving my name, and then paying for an hour's parking, I waited. And waited. Fifteen minutes after my appointment was due to start, I asked the receptionist whether the SHO I was due to see was running late. Only then did they tell me that they were on call all day, despite having booked a room for my appointment, and questioned whether I had the correct date and time - I unfortunately did not bring my appointment letter with me, having put the date and time in my diary, so I couldn't show it to them. The receptionist then rang the doctor's secretary, who said that there was no record of an appointment on the system. On my way home, I started to suffer an anxiety attack, panicking and doubting my own ability to manage my affairs (something which I take great pains to be efficient in, to avoid exacerbating my mental health difficulties). My letter, dated December 4th 2014, showed that I had the correct date and time. After I rang the hospital to let them know, I was told that because the doctor's previous SHO had made the appointment, it wasn't on the system. I am aware that it is common practice for SHOs to come and go every six months, so I would expect that the system was designed to cope with this. There was a complete lack of apology for the mistake made, which was not my fault, and I felt as if I was inconveniencing hospital staff by trying to attend my appointment. Although I have now been offered another appointment, in a week's time, I am so incredibly fed up with Bootham Park Hospital. This sort of thing has happened again and again. As a mental health hospital, I would expect that the staff were aware that continuity of care and stability are very important for their patients' well-being, and that delays, forgotten appointments, and the blase attitude with which these issues are treated has left me with absolutely no confidence in the organisational abilities of the hospital and its staff.