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Phone calls are not an accessible contact method for people ...

Posted By penguinsmall

"Phone calls are not an accessible contact method for people with anxiety or for deaf people"

About: West London NHS Trust / Gender Identity Clinic

(as the patient),

They have no online contact - I cannot email them or fill out a contact form, I can only phone them or physically mail them. Phone calls are not an accessible contact method for people with anxiety or for deaf people.

I phoned them to change my appointment. The automated phone thing went through the options, then told me that unless my appointment is in the next seven days, I have to send them a letter. I think this is ridiculous.

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Responses

Response from Sara Kerry, Patient Experience Coordinator, Central Governance Team, West London NHS Trust 6 years ago
Sara Kerry
Patient Experience Coordinator, Central Governance Team,
West London NHS Trust

Submitted on 25/04/2017 at 10:21
Published on Care Opinion at 10:24

Dear penguinsmall

Firstly please accept our apologies for the delay in providing you with a response. Dr James Barrett has provided the following answer to your question:

NHS England are not happy for email addresses that are insecure to be used for the receipt or transmission of emails.

A further convocation is that on numerous occasions over the years we have had emails, purportedly from patients, cancelling appointments which were, in fact, sent by family members who were unhappy with the patient's change of gender role. By insisting upon a written letter we can compare handwriting and make sure that any changes or cancellations are genuinely coming from the patient, rather than somebody malicious.

James Barrett

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