"Poor first impression of Lister after waiting 15..."

What could be improved

There does not appear to be an option anywhere on the site to comment on telephone access or 'contacting Lister Hospital'. This is a very important part of the service when your main purpose is dealing with the sick and their relatives.

After receiving a message from a family member to say that my mother in law had been taken in to hospital with heart problems, I immediately tried to telephone the hospital to enquire about her condition. I waited 8 minutes for an operator to answer the phone. When she did so she rudlely interrupted me before I could complete my first sentence saying 'sorry, just a minute...' and then put me back on hold. I then waited another 7 minutes before someone answered my call.

In my view this is an appalling length of time to wait to get through to a hospital. Clearly this service is either under-staffed or not managed effectively or efficiently. What does not appear to be taken into account here is that many people who are phoning the hospital are phoning in an anxious or distressed state about their loved ones. This is no time to be kept waiting for a response. If this were a business it would not survive long. But then, it is supposed to be a care provider with people not commodities at its heart. You may feel that in the bigger scheme of things a 15 minute wait to get through on the phone is a trivial matter. I beg to differ for reasons already outlined. Management should pay attention to properly resourcing all its services and properly training its staff in every functional area of organisation. Point is, my first experience of Lister hospital, before I even set foot in the place, is poor. Not a good first impression. It makes me worry about the other more important services...