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Care Opinion

Good care but some administration issues

Posted By jce83

"Good care but some administration issues"

About: Carn to Coast Health Centres Royal Cornwall Hospital (Treliske) / Ophthalmology

(as a service user),

Written by Healthwatch Cornwall on behalf of the story provider:

Opthalmology patient. Patient goes to Homecroft surgery, it's okay but it's difficult to get an appointment. Calling up in the morning sees all are taken for the day, they say it's very busy but when the patient's been there in the past, the waiting room has never been very busy. Can't book ahead. They've found out it's easier to go there in person at 8am and book an appointment face-to-face. Referred from GP to ophthalmology, it was 2-3 months until 1st appointment (which was 2-3 years ago). Been to West Cornwall Hospital and St Michael's. Good care, good information about plan of care. Has experienced issues with organisation/administration of appointments at Royal Cornwall Hospital, they have had 3 or 4 letters in the past all for the same appointment. Also had issues where they've turned up and said they should be at WCH, when calling WCH they said they had no record of the appointment. When these mistakes have happened RCH have resolved them quickly.

A note from Healthwatch Cornwall

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Responses

Response from Jess Saunders, Patient Engagement and Feedback Coordinator, Patient + Family Experience Team, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust 5 years ago
Jess Saunders
Patient Engagement and Feedback Coordinator, Patient + Family Experience Team,
Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust

Submitted on 27/12/2018 at 08:28
Published on Care Opinion at 14:57

picture of Jess Saunders

Dear jce83,

Thank you for taking the time to share your story with us. I was pleased to read that the care you have received good care and information about your care. I am sorry that you experienced issues with the administration of appointments, receiving multiple letters for the same appointment. I am glad to see that although there was a mix up with hospital location, the Ophthalmology department at the Royal Cornwall Hospital were about to see you.

I am responding to you as a member of the Patient and Family Experience Team, but I will share your story with the team in Ophthalmology so that they can be made aware of the administration issues.

Best wishes,

Jess

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Response from Carn to Coast Health Centres 5 years ago
Carn to Coast Health Centres

Submitted on 02/01/2019 at 09:18
Published on nhs.uk at 10:06

Thank you for providing this feedback.

A large part of the feedback relates to the patient's care under the Ophthalmology Department/West Cornwall Hospital and we trust Healthwatch Cornwall have brought this to that organisation's attention as they will not see this feedback on our own practice page - we cannot comment on this element unfortunately.

However we are certainly concerned to hear of the patient's experience of booking an appointment at Homecroft surgery and would happily investigate further if the patient would like to make contact.

We can assure patients that there are appointments available to book in advance and that we endeavour to keep sufficient on-the-day appointments to meet the need of patients with urgent care issues requiring a same day appointment.

These appointments are available at all our four of our sites including Homecroft and we endeavour to help spread peaks of demand in one area by offering availability at another site.

Where demand that day means that appointments at a particular site may be fully booked, and the patient is unable to attend another site, we arrange for a clinician to call the patient back and discuss their health concern.

That clinician can always arrange for that patient to be seen the same day if clinically necessary, but sometimes will be able to resolve the issue immediately over the phone even if a prescription is required, given that these can usually be sent electronically to the patient's preferred pharmacy location.

The waiting rooms on all sites will not always look busy, as there may be less nursing clinics on that particular site that day, or the doctors on duty can be out visiting patients or speaking to patients on the phone at that particular time.

We can certainly assure patients that our clinicians work very hard and all their availability is used appropriately for patient care.

We hope this response can be shared back with the patient so that they may feel reassured.

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