"Disappointing..."

My wife was referred to High Wycombe Urology Dept by her GP as an "urgent suspected cancer referral". We received a letter saying that a telephone appointment was booked for 11.20am on Friday 26th March.

My wife works but had arranged to be free for this call. A lady (S) phoned us at 11.05 (not the agreed time of 11.20) - and I explained that my wife was on her way home for the call and would be a few minutes and could she call back a little later, after her next call - which she agreed to do. She also said she had a full schedule and gave me her number to call her back to remind her. So far so good - then it goes wrong:

She did not call back and, over the next two hours, I left 4 voicemails on her number - and finally my wife needed to go back to work in the afternoon.

The lady eventually called back at 2.45pm and I told her that my wife had waited more than 2 hours to speak to her but, that in the end, she had to go back to work. The lady said "I told you I was busy" and that she would get Admin to re-arrange the appointment.

The next day my wife gets a letter from the NHS Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust stating that "she did not attend her appointment and her care has now been discharged" and that her GP will be informed.

This is not a professional or caring response as I understand it. My wife was available for the call at the agreed time and in fact took 3 (unpaid) hours off work to make sure that she was! The fact that it did not fit fit with the caller's agenda that day is not her fault - and for the appointment to cancelled because "she did not attend" is outrageous! Especially in view of the reason for the call in the first place. My wife is understandably very upset and we now have to start the whole process again - and as it's the Easter weekend that means we can't re-contact the GP for another 4 days.

If I treated my customers like this in business I would soon have no more customers left. However I guess the Urology Dept doesn't have these concerns...