"Administrational confusion, but overall good care"

Received an appointment for the above clinic after referral by my GP.

I was impressed that the appointment was in the evening, which meant I would not have to take time off work - I took this as an indication that the NHS is obviously changing.

I went to the clinic and reported to reception there as instructed on my letter, only to be told that I had received the incorrect information and was re-directed to another clinic. I entered this clinic and noticed there was no reception, so just took a seat. Some 10mins later, a nurse/auxiliary came and asked if anyone sitting had not reported to the clinic (I wondered how this was possible as there was no visible desk where I could report to). A few of us dutifully put our hands up!

On reading my letter the person then informed me that I was again in the wrong clinic told me where I should be. I in turn explained that I had just been sent from the clinic she was going to send me back to, and it was then she called for assistance from a colleague. The colleague confirmed that I was in the wrong place and would take me and another gentleman to the correct clinic. I jokingly told another patient to hold my seat as I would be back!

Off to the original clinic then, only to be told I was in the wrong place again (can you believe this?), so I waited patiently until the receptionist and nurse/aux decided where I should go. This clinic did state "hand and upper limb", so I informed both NHS staff that if it helped matters any, I was actually there to see about my hip.

Back off the the second clinic I went with the nurse/aux saying she had never seen anything like this before and she was having nothing to do with the appointment mix up. By this time, I did not care, and told her I was only interested in being seen.

Luckily my seat was still there so I sat and waited for my turn.

When I did get to see the consultant, some 30mins., later, it took no more than 5 mins for the appointment to be over. Pleasant enough visit with a follow up x-ray within 4 weeks.

All in all I was pleased with the time it took for the referral at my GP's to the hospital appointment and was more pleasantly surprised by the actual appointment time, and happy with the consultants care and attention.

It seems a shame that someone in admin might have got details wrong which caused the confusion as to which clinic I should attend.

Not entirely disastrous, but I did feel a bit foolish being shunted from one to another...

Admin - I would like to suggest that you please take more care when sending out appointments - the mistake caused your colleagues a bit of stress at the end of the day which I am sure they could have done without, and lucky for them I recognised this.