"Absoutely awful."

What I liked

Absolutely nothing.

What could be improved

Between my GP and Northwick Park, my care has been a catalogue of errors. The combination of antiquated systems, unhelpful staff and two seperate parts of the NHS that don't seem willing to communicate (my GP and the hospital) have meant that it has taken me 5 months to try to get an appointment and treatment for a chronic condition.

My GP referred me to the hospital in September 2010. The hospital apparently wrote to me in November 2010 to send me an appointment time. My post very often does not arrive (as is the case with many people in London who have communal post boxes). Because I did not reply to the letter that did not reach me, I was automatically referred back to my GP after two weeks (why is OK that it took Northwick Park eight weeks to issue a letter, but I only have two weeks to respond?). Therefore, when I eventually called Northwick Park to ask where my referal had got to and whether I could make an appointment I was rudely told that I had been referred back to my GP and the inflexiblity of the system meant that I once again had to chase vairous people to be referred again.

When I was eventually re-referred, I managed to convince someone in outpatients to make an appointment over the phone and that corresponding by mail was not going to work. I turned up for my appointment, the Doctor did not have my medical notes and knew nothing about me.

This is an absolute shambles - get online booking, get some staff with a positive can-do attitude and make sure you get people's medical notes.AppointmentsReferralsCommunicationPatient careAttitudeTelephoneOutpatientsDoctors