"Booking System turned off!"

Dear ‘yellowbooth’

Thank you for taking the time to feed back your experience, and apologies for the frustration and confusion being caused to you.

As you are aware from our phone message there are ongoing issues with the national NHS e-Referral system, formerly Choose and Book, which mean that DRSS are unable to book your appointment with you in the normal way.

The teething problems with the e-Referrals system mean that the system is running much slower than normal and it is taking much longer than usual to handle each booking. With up to 7,000 bookings a week to make, a backlog has started to form.

There is no information currently from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), which provides the new software, about when the system will be running again normally.

We completely understand your frustrations about the length of time this situation has been ongoing, and please be assured that we, as a health community, are working very closely with the national HSCIC team to improve things as soon as possible. In the meantime the following arrangements have been put in place locally to ensure that your referral isn’t delayed during this period:

• Referrals are being reviewed in the normal way and DRSS, or your local hospital, will be in contact with you regarding your appointment as soon as possible.

• People who need a rapid referral, such as those patients with suspected cancer, will continue to be seen within two weeks.

We have updated our phone message this morning to reflect the current booking process (the section highlighted in bold above) and this now includes a link to the DRSS helpdesk number (01626 883 888). Although the helpdesk can’t book appointments they will be able to answer other queries relating to referrals.

If you would like me to look into your referral to see at what stage it’s at perhaps you could call me on 07971 149 644 or email me at rachael.burridge@nhs.net so we can get some more details.

Apologies once again for the frustration this situation is causing.

All the best

Rachael Burridge

Please be aware of potential security issues of sharing personal information via unsecure email accounts.

Dear 'yellowbooth'

The comments and responses on the web-site of Patient Opinion are shared with us at Healthwatch.

Thank you for responding to point out the difficulties you experienced. You may wish to follow up the suggestion of ringing direct to the number of Rachael Burridge.

At Healthwatch we are building a picture of the provision of services in Devon and these comments should help the NHS and other providers develop and improve their services.

If you wish to discuss this experience or any health or social care issues with us in confidence, including seeking advice or information about services, please call 0800 520 0640, or email info@healthwatchdevon.co.uk or go on-line to www.healthwatchdevon.co.uk.

Yours sincerely

Peter Brain

Volunteer

Healthwatch Devon is the consumer champion for Health and Social Care in Devon.