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Care Opinion

Appointment system

Posted By festivityfm94

"Appointment system"

About: Pilgrim Hospital / Trauma and orthopaedics

(as a service user),

At the end of June I received a text message which was a reminder of my  ULHT 'Orthopaedic' appointment whixch was set for two days later. As this may be virtual or in person I was asked to refer to my letter or phone call for details

I had no letter or phone call to refer to and had to call my GP to ask where I should call. They gave me the number for outpatients bookings. I told them I hadn’t had a letter and they said that I would but it had just not arrived yet. I pointed out the appt was in 2 days and they then gave me the location.

After seeing the consultant, who didn’t bother to introduce themeselves or the other people in the room, they said they would refer me for an MRI. I was concerned that I might not be notified of the appt so I went to reception to tell them of my concerns. They said that the system generated a text message and, if 48hrs later, the txt hasn’t been read, then they generate a letter. That can’t be right as the text was received 48hrs prior to the appt. They said they could take me off the txt option which would generate a letter automatically but I’m concerned then that the post would be delayed!

Surely, a text message can include the date, time, location, and name of the consultant to save people chasing around to find out the details.  I feel that it’s no wonder so much money is lost through missed appointments as the notification system is less than adequate. My email address is in file. Surely the letter could be sent via email?

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Responses

Response from Laura Kearney, Outpatients Operational Services Manager, Outpatients, United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust 9 months ago
Laura Kearney
Outpatients Operational Services Manager, Outpatients,
United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust

Submitted on 11/07/2023 at 14:40
Published on Care Opinion at 14:40

Dear festivityfm94

Firstly, sincere apologies for the confusion after not receiving notification of your appointment by letter, unfortunately this can happen occasionally if there are delays in the external mail system - however it is reassuring that you received the text message appointment reminder enabling you to find out the details of your consultation.

I am very sorry you were not greeted by the consultant in the courteous manner that you should have been – this is certainly not upholding the Trust values and I will pass your feedback on to my colleagues in Orthopaedics.

For future information if a consultant wishes for a diagnostic test to be completed post appointment they would request this directly from the diagnostics team – the Outpatient reception team do not book further diagnostic tests.

With regard to the general follow-up booking process I think there may have been some confusion as it sounds as though the receptionist was providing information about the digital portal which is a system we use to send Outpatient appointment letters to patients digitally at the point of booking, initially via a text message with a link and pin number to access the portal.

For most Outpatient appointments this process is carried out automatically if a mobile telephone number is recorded for the patient, with the exception of 2 week wait suspected cancer appointments and appointments within one week – for this type of appointment the Outpatient team would try to contact the patient by telephone.

For appointment letters sent digitally, if the portal is not accessed by the patient within 48 hours portal to view the details a physical letter is sent via business post.

The digital portal is a different system to the text message appointment reminder service which is sent 48 hours before the appointment and is not interactive. Regrettably we are unable to include all of the appointment details you mention as this type of message is limited to a maximum number of characters available.

Unfortunately the Trust do not currently use email as a form of correspondence for appointments. This is due to functionality, security and confidentiality as we are unable to send patient details to non-accredited personal email accounts (e.g. Hotmail and Gmail).

I hope this goes some way to providing assurance and answers to your questions but please do not hesitate to contact me directly, or our patient experience team if we can help any further.

Kind Regards.

Laura

Laura.Kearney@ULH.nhs.uk

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Update posted by festivityfm94 (a service user)

Thank you for responding however, the lack of a detailed letter was not due to an “occasional delay”. It was clearly not sent as it’s now 2 weeks on and I still haven’t received it.

I didn’t ask the receptionist to book my MRI. I did understand that the consultant would do this directly. My question to the receptionist was, how does the “system” work as I was concerned that I was only going to get half of the information, or indeed none at all, in relation to the MRI.

Your explanation, whilst detailed, is very confusing, in line with my recent experience of ULHT. Your talk of Portals means nothing to me and goes no way to explaining, in layman’s terms, what I should expect in the future. I’m very concerned that money savings for your booking system is weighing heavily on other departments I.e my GP who had to spend time providing me with details of where to find the relevant information. On talking to friends and family I have found that my experience is not unusual at all

Response from Laura Kearney, Outpatients Operational Services Manager, Outpatients, United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust 9 months ago
Laura Kearney
Outpatients Operational Services Manager, Outpatients,
United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust

Submitted on 17/07/2023 at 08:14
Published on Care Opinion at 08:14

Dear festivityfm94

I am very sorry that you found the reply confusing, it can be quite difficult to explain some of the different systems and processes we use at ULHT.

For more information about how the digital portal for appointment letters works you may find this YouTube video helpful: https://youtu.be/61790VBD6MI

My apologies if I may have misinterpreted your enquiry about the MRI booking, the information I provided was to ensure you were aware that Outpatient appointments run and are booked separately to Diagnostics.

Regarding your original appointment letter not being received unfortunately I am unable to comment further without the details, however if you would like to share these with myself, or via our PALS team, I would be happy to investigate further and provide you with an individual response.

Kind regards,

Laura.

Laura.Kearney@ULH.nhs.uk

PALS: Email - pals@ulh.nhs.uk, Text: 07815 707746, Tel: Lincoln - 01522 707071, Grantham 01476 464861, Pilgrim - 01205 446243

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Update posted by festivityfm94 (a service user)

Thank you. I will look up the video however I would like to find out why my letter wasn’t received. What information do you need in order to investigate this?

Response from Laura Kearney, Outpatients Operational Services Manager, Outpatients, United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust 9 months ago
Laura Kearney
Outpatients Operational Services Manager, Outpatients,
United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust

Submitted on 18/07/2023 at 09:03
Published on Care Opinion at 09:03

Dear festivityfm94

In order for me to investigate further please provide the following details - either directly to myself (email) or via our PALS team (email or telephone).

Contact details can be found at the bottom of this message.

Your name, address Your contact details where to send reply Your NHS number The appointment date

Kind regards,

Laura

Laura.Kearney@ULH.nhs.uk

PALS: Emails: pals@ulh.nhs.uk. Text: 07815 707746. Phone: Lincoln 01522 707071, Grantham 01476 464861, Pilgrim 01205 446243

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Update posted by festivityfm94 (a service user)

I decided to take this up via my local MP and have now had a response from Emma at PALS Pilgrim Hospital.

She states that as my original booking was rescheduled by myself as I was on holiday which is the case. The appointment was rebooked and a letter should have been generated but it sits on a different spool on a different system which hasn’t been used since COVID. It appears that many items were sitting on this list on a system which had been turned off.

Due to my query, these lists have been checked and cleared and should now automatically generate letters.

What is frustrating is that, if I hadn’t chased up the matter, we’d still be blaming the postal service or assuming that patients weren’t turning up for appointments out of choice when they hadn’t even been notified

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