"Poor attitude and very unhelpful"

Serious problems with admin staff - rude, poor attitude and very unhelpful. A quick look on internet search engine reviews pretty much sums it up!

This really needs addressed, especially when they are dealing with already vulnerable patients who don't need to come off from a phone call with them feeling worse than they already do at the best of times and with even more, avoidable, problems to deal with!

I called on toward the end of December with a query regarding an upcoming appointment in January. Specifically, I was asking if the psychiatrist would still like me to come in for that appointment or if he would prefer to postpone it as I had been assessed by a specialist service mid December, however, following this they had arranged further assessment date with me, and therefore I presume the psychiatrist wouldn't have had any feedback from them yet for the appointment which is scheduled for my appointment in January.

When I called I was put through to the relevant secretary who told me that they weren't sure, but they would call me back on a particular date after the Christmas break when the psychiatrist was back in.

Having received no call on that date, I then called again the next day, in the afternoon. I tried to get through several times on the usual reception number from just after 4pm, which continuously rang out with no answer. I then managed to find a letter with the secretary's telephone number on it and so phoned that number.

What an unpleasant experience that was! First up I was greeted in the most unprofessional way with a very casual/fed up sounding hello - certainly not the way you would expect a call to be answered by anyone in any sort of service. It was that bad I had to ask if I was through to the Resource Centre (in case I had called a residential number by mistake and was speaking to someone who had taken something they probably shouldn't have)! I then had to ask if I was speaking with the secretary, I was trying to get hold of, to which they answered no, because they were on holiday.

I then explained the situation above to them, and that nobody had called back and I was wanting to check what the best thing to do would be. The tone and attitude I encountered was, in my opinion, appalling.

I got told that they didn't know how they could call me back as they were on holiday. I then tried to query if anyone else could help and what the best thing to do would be. Half way through my sentence I was interrupted by them telling me that they couldn't even check anything as their computer was off, they then started to engage in a conversation with one of their colleagues, then as I attempted to speak again I was told they were unable to help as its now after 5pm (which it wasn't) as they clearly intended on putting the phone down on me. Before they could hang up on me, I asked them if the calls were recorded (because, to be frank, the way you are continuously spoken to by admin staff on the phone there, is that bad, calls should be reviewed and monitored, and training undertaken to improve the way patients are communicated with).

Clearly unhappy, they then tutted, said they didn't know and then put me on hold. I assumed they put me on hold to try find out if the calls were recorded, however, when they came back they just asked if I wanted the January appointment to be cancelled.

After advising them that no, I didn't want the appointment cancelled (given that I had no answer to the original and very simple query of what the psychiatrist wanted to do), I then asked for someone to call me back as this had clearly been so badly handled by both the original secretary who didn't call me back as promised (and, according to the person on the call that day, would never have been able to, or had no intention of in the first instance, given that they were on leave), and in particular by the person I spoke to today

When I requested someone call me back, I was responded to with a nonchalant okay and absolutely nothing else but silence. Given that they had failed to call me back previously, I then asked who would call me back and when. I was told, in the same nonchalant manner they didn't know who would call or when, before telling me it would probably be someone tomorrow morning.

The first secretary was bad enough but could be argued as being a mistake - maybe they forgot they were on leave etc., although this is not the first mistake I have encountered by them! The secretary from today, however, is inexcusable.

As previously said - this is a persistent issue, not just with me but with other service users too (as evidenced by many reviews elsewhere). It seems clear, from my previous experience of bringing up such issues with the service directly, it is a top down issue with managers encouraging and being fully aware of such behaviours (and in my previous experience actually displaying those behaviours themselves). Therefore, whenever complaints are made regarding it, there is, in my opinion, no chance from the start of anything being done to address it!

In my opinion, it is a very poor and impactful experience for service users to have to endure at an already incredibly difficult time. Perhaps someone could actually do something about it, or, as seems to be the case, are the experiences of service users who are continuously exposed to such behaviour so meaningless that it will just be allowed to carry on?