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13 weeks to get an appointment

Story from nhs.uk

"13 weeks to get an appointment"

About: Croydon University Hospital

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The alleged waiting time to get an appointment for any service is 13 weeks. This has now become the default and norm. I waited 14 weeks last year for physiotherapy and this year, I am now waiting 10 weeks for orthotics. A lot can go wrong whilst waiting and there dose not seem to be any urgency either by hospitals or GPs at this rotten service. Hospitals aren't bothered because they can always fall back on the 13 weeks guide line and Gps, once they have referred, don't bother to chase.

This 13 weeks wait is unacceptable especially for services which can have a positive outcome for patients. PALS are taking phone messages for orthotics at Mayday hospital because of lack of staff. One person is off sick so are there only two people working in that department?

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Responses

Response from Croydon University Hospital 10 years ago
Croydon University Hospital

Submitted on 20/05/2013 at 17:51
Published on nhs.uk on 21/05/2013 at 03:15

We are sorry to hear that you have had to wait for such a long time for your appointments for these services; our physiotherapy and orthotics services are both in high demand and while we try to see patients as soon as possible there is often a delay before an appointment is scheduled. When we are experiencing high volumes of calls to a service and there is a need for extra support to answer the telephone to ensure that our patients can get through, our PALS team will support that service on a short term basis. This has been the case over the last few days for the orthotics service, but we anticipate that this support will not be necessary very shortly. Thank you for taking the time to let us know your thoughts. We have passed your comments on to the managers for these services, who will be looking at how we might be able to speed up seeing patients. We take patient concerns very seriously and it is your feedback that helps us to improve. Could you contact our PALS team on 020 8401 3210 or email talktous@croydonhealth.nhs.uk with some details of your experience so that we can see what we can do to improve more?

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