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Dreadful service

Posted By cyclonems98

"Dreadful service"

About: Manchester Royal Infirmary / Ear, Nose and Throat

(as a service user),

I was given an urgent referral to MRI ENT in early November by my GP. MRI failed to get in touch with an appointment.  My GP gave me a telephone number to 'phone, it was the ENT reception. I rang this number and gave my details as the automated message required and waited for the promised call back but it didn't happen. I repeated this procedure again the following day twice and still the promised call back did not occur.  The next day was Saturday and despite a great deal of scepticism I tried again. To my absolute shock a human answered the 'phone. They asked for my details and the nature of the query and then informed me very politely that they could not make an appointment.  In what can only be described as farcical confident and touchingly sincere terms, they said they suggested that I should ring the same number again on Monday morning and I would receive a call back. I called at 9am it is now 11.15, no call back.

This service that has shown a lack of manners and in my experience, is so bad it makes the service offered by my the GP look satisfactory which some achievement.

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Responses

Response from Connor Thomson, Experience and involvement officer, Patient Experience Team, Manchester University Foundation NHS Trust 5 months ago
Connor Thomson
Experience and involvement officer, Patient Experience Team,
Manchester University Foundation NHS Trust

Submitted on 23/12/2024 at 11:30
Published on Care Opinion at 11:33

Dear cyclonems98

Thank you for your comments. Your feedback is very important to us, as it allows our services to make the improvements that our patients feel are needed. Your feedback has been shared with senior staff members in the Head and Neck Clinical Service Unit.

The Unit Manager, Mr Lee Minchin, apologises for the difficulty you have experienced contacting the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) department. Due to the high volume of calls received by the reception desk it is not always possible for the team to respond to requests for call backs on the same day that the requests are received.

Mr Minchin is sorry for the frustration and inconvenience caused by this, however, confirms that the staff member you spoke to on Saturday was correct in informing you that the department does not offer a telephone booking service. Appointment booking is completed via the waiting list in order of longest waiters within the urgent or routine categories and the current waiting time for any urgent ENT appointment is around 20-25 weeks. If your General Practitioner (GP) feels that your referral needs to be expedited the team would be happy to review a letter confirming this and arrange a sooner appointment if clinically appropriate.

In the meantime, if you have any further concerns, the secretary who deals with ENT bookings and queries at Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) can be contacted on 0161 701 9434 as an alternative to the ENT reception desk. However, please be aware that the administration team do not always have the capacity to respond to all messages for requests for call backs on the same day that the requests are made.

We appreciate that some time has passed now since your original comment. We hope that, if you have not already managed to make an appointment, the above advice is helpful in getting your appointment arranged.

Yours Sincerely

Unit Manager for the Head and Neck Clinical

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