"Extremely poor administration"

My wife has been privately under various consultants at Goring Hall and is happy with the advice and treatment she has received from them. Obtaining access to them, however, has been an entirely different matter. Here is one example. My wife's consultant rheumatologist sent a letter on 1July 2015 to one of Goring Hall's consultant neurologists asking them to see my wife and give their opinion on her condition. On 15 July, having heard nothing from the neurologist, my wife rang Goring Hall to speak to their secretary. She was put through to out-patients and told that the consultant neurologist doesn't have a secretary. She explained that her rheumatologist had sent them a letter on 1 July asking for an appointment. Outpatients said that they had not received the letter. She asked them to contact her rheumatologist's secretary to find out where the letter was. Outpatients rang back a few minutes later to say that her rheumatologist's secretary confirmed that they had written the letter of 1 July and passed it to the rheumatologist but had no idea what he had done with it! So what is the patient expected to do if a consultant's secretary leaves it to the consultant to post their letters and a letter goes astray? If my wife had not taken the initiative to enquire of Goring Hall what was happening about the appointment with the neurologist, it might never have been arranged. As a result of her call she was given an appointment for 28 July. Had the letter of 1 July reached Outpatients by 2 July (which should surely have been possible with an efficient internal mail system) my wife could have been included in the neurologist's clinic on 21 July. This would have enabled them to give their opinion on her condition to her rheumatologist whom she had an appointment to see on 23 July. It should not be necessary for the patient to do all the running to arrange appointments following referrals between consultants. This is just one of several examples of poor administration experienced by my wife at Goring Hall since October 2014. In the meantime my wife has been losing weight and experiencing continuing pain. Good administration is the life-blood of an efficient hospital and when it fails the patient suffers. I hope that Goring Hall will take note. In your section 4 below you ask in which month and year my wife visited the hospital and which department. My wife has visited on numerous dates since October 2014 and generally visited Consultants through the outpatients department.