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Care Opinion

Excessive delay in Appointment

Posted By Michael Fuller

"Excessive delay in Appointment"

About: New Victoria Hospital / Gynaecology Clinic

(as a parent/guardian),

My daughter had a miscarriage in July and had a scan in August that revealed a 9cm cyst on her left ovary. My daughter was extremely worried about the implications of the miscarriage and the results of the scan and therefore sought an early appointment with a Gynecologist. From the beginning, my daughter has had to chase for that appointment and, in her words, virtually had to beg for it.

My daughter was eventually told that she could not be seen by a doctor at the Victoria Hospital until October - a delay of over 8 weeks - and she therefore arranged for child care for her daughter and to take a day's holiday. However, she returned home this week, after a weekend away, to find a letter from Greater Glasgow - dated October 1 but received on October 6 - cancelling the appointment on October 9 and offering her an alternative date of October 6.

No attempt was made to telephone her, no reasons were given for the cancellation and the alternative date was received too late to be of use.

My daughter was then told that the appointment would have to be further delayed until November and only after a lengthy phone call and considerable debate was that appointment brought forward to the end of October (almost 12 weeks since the original request). However, the latest appointment would now have to be with a different doctor and at a different hospital (the QE University Hospital).

These delays and the complete lack of explanation have caused considerable distress to my daughter and are a clear breach of the Board's duty to maintain a patient-centered service. Can something please be done immediately by GGC NHS to get my Daughter the expert advice that she requires?

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Responses

Response from Lorna Fairlie, Patient Experience, Public Involvement Project Manager, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde 8 years ago
Lorna Fairlie
Patient Experience, Public Involvement Project Manager,
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

I work in a small team in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde which seeks to involve patients and carers in the work of the NHS. The biggest part of my role is in managing feedback projects across the Board area, one of which is Patient Opinion. It is my job to give our patients and carers the opportunity to give us feedback, and to make sure that this is passed to the right people to help us improve the services we provide.

Submitted on 09/10/2015 at 16:46
Published on Care Opinion at 17:32

Dear Mr Fuller,

I am so sorry to read this - I know that your daughter will already be going through such a difficult time following her miscarriage, and so the additional worry created by the discovery of this cyst I'm sure will be having such an impact on her, as well as you all as a family.

I am glad that she has secured an appointment at the end of the month, but accept how frustrating getting to this stage has been for her. As you have pointed out, there has been a clear lack of communication which is unacceptable, and I can completely understand how this would cause additional distress at an already emotional time.

I'd like to be able to help look into this for you both and see what we can do to move forward in a more positive way and to hopefully make the rest of your daughter's experience go much more smoothly. It would really help if your daughter could get in touch with me directly with some of her personal information, which I could take back to the service. I have already passed on your comments, but this would allow us to look at what has happened here in more detail. My email address is lorna.gray@ggc.scot.nhs.uk and I hope to hear from her soon.

Best wishes,

Lorna

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