"St Thomas Gastroenterology: inability to take organisational learning from apparent service failures"

Recently I reported on how I wasted half a day off work for an appointment that never materialised. Instead of the highly experienced named specialist I had asked to see, I was fobbed off with a Research Fellow with in my opinion a strong need for training in interpersonal skills and attitude.

I am still waiting for the courtesy of a response from the complaints team to whom I wrote 2 weeks ago. I believe a professional organisation would write to apologise and to inform me of what organisational learning they might gain from their service failures, but apparently not this place.

Meanwhile I arrived home from work this evening to find a letter telling me I had an appointment tomorrow morning. As stated in my original report – I am a busy professional who needs to provide advance notice to management of appointments. I also need time to re-schedule my work load. This could not be more inconvenient.

In the letter they have the temerity to tell me to give as much notice if I cannot attend, when they have no regard for my time. I'm so angry I could burst a blood vessel.

When will the NHS get the message? Your time is not more valuable than the taxpayers who fund it.

In their letter, they’ve not even told me whether this appointment is with the specialist I requested, so I may well end up wasting another day off work. I tried to ring PALS, but they were shut for the day.

This is probably the most unprofessional part of the NHS I have ever dealt with and that’s really saying something, as in my experience it’s just awful across the board.