"computer down"

Dear ‘gramrye’,

Thank you for contacting us and apologies for the frustration you must have experienced. We did experience a major technical fault yesterday where all of the booking team’s computers crashed simultaneously. This fault was quickly rectified and we are back up and running now.

I can’t be sure without more details but it sounds like your referral needed to be sent to a Clinical Assessment Service which are services currently in place at some of the local hospitals for Cardiology and Gastroenterology clinics. Usually, when a patient phones DART, we are able to offer a choice of hospitals and view the appointments at each hospital and the patient can book a suitable appointment there and then. However, there are a few specialities where there are a range of diagnostic tests frequently required and the correct clinic for the patient is not obvious to a non-clinician. In these cases some hospitals choose to not allow us to book the referral but to get a specialist to check the referral first and book the appointment themselves to avoid having to change it later which would obviously inconvenience the patient. These services ask us to advise patients that they will hear from the hospital directly within 4 weeks which is why I think this is what happened to you.

Your UBRN allows us access to your name, date of birth and address and the referral letter from your GP would usually contain your contact telephone number so the hospital will be able to get in touch with you when they are able to offer you an appropriate appointment.

I hope that this has answered your queries but if you would like to talk to someone at DART about any remaining issues with your referral please feel free to contact our Patient Helpline on 01626 883888.

Kind regards,

Susan