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Out of hours confusion

Story from nhs.uk

"Out of hours confusion"

About: East Riding Community Hospital

I found a rash on my toddler which did not dissappear with the glass test so I looked online, saw this was an out of hours gp and went down.

It was my mistake for not phoning and following correct procedure, you are not meant to just turn up and I did not know that.

Reception let me on anyway and took details.

I then sat there with toddler for 30 mins with not another person in sight but nothing happened.

Then another patient came in and was seen right away.

I still waited.

Then another came in so I went to ask.

Apparently because they had rung ahead they had appointments so were being seen ahead of me. Even if they had called after I filled in my details with person at reception.

I was told there was another patient not yet arrived who would also be seen ahead of me.

I was told I could try going to goole! If I needed to ring 111 for an appointment I could have done that from reception, if the receptionist had told me.

They just let me sit there for 50 minutes.

I accept I was wrong, but surely at the point I registered at reception I earned a place in the queue? Apparently not.

It was clearly going to be a much longer wait for us and I was pretty confused and upset so I just went home. I think there is a need for the website and reception staff to be much clearer about the process and perhaps allow a little common sense in if someone does arrive at the door, or at the very least explain they need to phone for an appointment rather than just letting them sit there.

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Responses

Response from East Riding Community Hospital 7 years ago
East Riding Community Hospital

Submitted on 16/03/2017 at 10:54
Published on nhs.uk on 17/03/2017 at 02:38

We can only convey our sincere apologies on behalf of the Trust. This is neither the standard of service we would expect from our staff nor an experience any patient should encounter during a time of need.

While there is a process for accessing the service, we do expect a proportion of ‘drop-in patients’ and have a procedure designed to accommodate them in a timely and effective way.

We are sorry the patient in this case felt others were seen before they were and, as a consequence, experienced what seemed to be a delayed wait. This occurs when NHS111 is not contacted prior to attendance.

When patients with pre-appointed times arrive they are seen at their scheduled times. ‘Drop-in’ patients are scheduled to be seen at the earliest time available. This can be minutes or sometimes hours. It seems as though this was not clearly explained to this patient in a sympathetic and informative manner. Apologies, once again, for the inconvenience caused.

If you would would like to discuss the issue further, please contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service on 01482 303966.

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