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"Terrible "service""

About: Worthing Hospital / Neurology

I don't normally write reviews - positive or negative, however, my experience of the Neurological department of Worthing hospital has left me (a grown man) very close to tears with the stress caused to me by them. I live in Portsmouth and have been given a neurology referral by my GP. The way that such a referral is now done is that you are given a referral reference number by your GP and you either call the NHS referrals booking line or log onto their website in order to book an appointment at a hospital from a list given. In my case, I chose to book my appointment (2 weeks ago) via the web site. The next available Neurology appointment - from a choice of 6 hospitals - was Worthing hospital on 28 November 2016 (the next available appointments at the other 5 hospitals was showing as 120 days time......). Hence the reason I booked the appointment at Worthing despite living in Portsmouth, as it was showing the earliest possible appointment. On booking the appointment, the web site confirmed that the appointnent was booked for the 28 November 2016. I therefore duly travelled by train to Worthing on Monday this week (28 November). On arrival at Neurology I gave my name etc. The receptionist keyed in my details and then looked at me and said "I'm sorry, but your appointment is showing on the system as cancelled - didn' t anyone contact you to tell you?". I politely replied that why would I be standing there if I had been told? I asked why my appointment had been cancelled and why nobody had contacted me. The receptionist explained that they couldn' t tell me as their system didn't give them that information. I explained that I had travelled all the way from Portsmouth. The receptionist apologised and said that I would have to book a fresh appointment via NHS referrals. On arriving home at Portsmouth I attempted to do this via the web site and the telephone - without any joy - as I was informed by the NHS telephone team that when Worthing cancelled my appointment they also invalidated my GP referral reference - and that I would now have to contact my GP to get a fresh referral reference. In view of this I spoke to Worthing hospital's PALS complaints team late on the afternoon of 28 November and told them the whole sorry story. They said that in view if this they would have the Manager of the Neurology dept contact me. As of close of play on 30 November I have had no contact whatsoever from said Manager. Hence my experience of Neurology at Worthing Hospital: 1. Appoitment cancelled without any notification 2. No one able to tell me why 3. 48 hours after logging my complaint the Neurology Manager has still not contacted me - and I very mych doubt ever will 4. I now have to go back to my GP for fresh referral. Awful "service" at Worthing with no-one able to give me any answers and obviously a total lack of concern for me, the patient.

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Responses

Response from Worthing Hospital 7 years ago
Worthing Hospital
Submitted on 20/12/2016 at 09:21
Published on nhs.uk on 21/12/2016 at 01:30


We are sorry that you have had such a frustrating time since your referral to us and we sincerely apologise.

We are aware that you have contacted us personally and that we are investigating what happened.

We will be in touch with you during our investigation and once again we are sorry that you have had such a poor impression of our Trust.

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