"Endoscopy appointments system"

In February 2023 my GP said I required an urgent endoscopy. Reassuringly, I was given an appointment by phone, within 2 days and I confirmed verbally that I would be at the appointment in mid March 2023.  A confirmation letter, was subsequently received, but not until a week before the appointment, asking me to confirm by phoning that I would attend. I started phoning this number but was unable to get a reply.

Over the next few days my phone records 12 attempts and over 6 hours of hanging on waiting for a reply.  Sometimes it tripped to trip to another number, after a long wait. For example, I was asked to enter my PIN or was told I was, say, 8 in the queue, only to be told after a considerable wait that I was now number 12. On occasions after a wait of about an hour the number disconnected. I also tried phoning the St John's appointment department and the clinic I was to attend, but without success. Fortunately, I did eventually get through after two days to confirm the appointment, after only a 24 minute wait.

The people I did get to speak to were sympathetic and tried to help  I understand that at the time the appointments service was suffering staff shortages. It seems, however, that the system is so rigid that it cannot accommodate any deviation from the set pathway. For example, if phones are not answered then appointments will be automatically cancelled.

From a personal point of view,  I was in real danger of missing an urgent endoscopy for suspected cancer, through a system failure. This added to an already stressful situation. I was also away from home during this period, with no phone signal where I was staying. Consequently my 6 hours of hanging on were mainly spent in cold, wet, snowy and windy conditions outside on the seafront in Fife. Not comfortable! 

I am reporting this in the hope that modifications can be made to the appointments system to avoid such situations in future. I am a strong supporter of the NHS and appreciate the difficulties. I have no complaints about staff, who all did their best to help me out. It's just that the system prevented them from doing so.