"24 weeks and counting for ENT referral"

My daughter was referred to Chesterfield Royal Hospital ENT in February 2024. After hearing nothing after 20 weeks, I contacted the hospital to check on my daughter’s referral to be informed the waiting times for a first appointment was at least 10 months! 

According to the myplannedcare website where data is reportedly updated each week, referrals to ENT at Chesterfield Royal take on average 9 weeks for the first outpatient appointment and 17 weeks for treatment. On their own website it states outpatient waiting time targets for an ENT appointment stand at 4 weeks. This drastically contradicts the information I was provided on the phone where they said their waiting time for their first appointment was 10 months.

Clearly there is a mismatch between performance driven data reported nationally and local data within the hospital. If I had known there was going to be such substantial waiting time for a first appointment, I would have asked for my daughter to be referred elsewhere. However this relies on accurate and up-to-date information being available online. If services are facing staffing or resource pressures, they should at least be transparent about delays to care online and not report they are below the national standard when they are not. It is important that services are transparent about their waiting times so clinicians and families are able to make an informed choice about accessing services at the point of referral.