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Unnecessary wasteful NHS appointment paperwork

Posted By Suzational

"Unnecessary wasteful NHS appointment paperwork"

About: Nightingale Hospital Exeter / Rheumatology

(as the patient),

I am in the process of receiving ongoing treatment for my advanced Osteoporosis. I have no complaint against any of the NHS Staff immediately involved with my treatment, but it does concern me greatly in view of the state of the UK NHS financial issues how often there is a tremendous wastage of resources in regard to unnecessary repeated appointment mail that sometimes arrives within days of each other.   

In the last recent example I received 8 sheets of A4 some of which could have been double sided duplex printed and singular copies sent to save on waste printed copies.  

This is not the first time either.  I get to thinking how much this type of wastage within the NHS must partly contribute to the state it is in?

Surely with all the NHS  Administrators, plus time and motion studies, this matter can be addressed to cut down on the pointless waste?

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Responses

Response from Helen Bowmer, Admin Services Manager (Eastern Services), Nightingale Hospital, Exeter (Eastern Services), Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust 5 months ago
We are preparing to make a change
Helen Bowmer
Admin Services Manager (Eastern Services), Nightingale Hospital, Exeter (Eastern Services),
Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 31/01/2025 at 22:04
Published on Care Opinion on 03/02/2025 at 08:14

picture of Helen Bowmer

Dear Suzational,

I am one of the managers at the Nightingale. Thank you for taking the time to provide us with your feedback. I am pleased that you find the care you receive to be of a high standard. The Royal Devon University Healthcare Trust has a new initiative which is "digital by default". They are taking steps to improve the use of paper within the trust which initially began with our Electronic Paper Record system, which made the previous paper patient notes redundant. We are working with the Rheumatology team to try to think of better ways of communicating with our patients, especially if their preference is for digital communications. This will not be a quick process but we are looking at ways we can improve the use of our paperwork.

With best wishes,

Helen Bowmer

Admin Services Manager

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by Suzational (the patient)

Thank you Helen. That was a very nice response and reassuring you are aware of the problems of paper waste in some NHS communication systems.

These things do take time I understand, but it is nice to know you are on to it👍

I am a avid paper and cardboard recycler and no reusable Wrappings or cardboard are missed in my turnover😂. Its amazing how many shopping & other HH lists have helped save the planet in our house!👍

Regards with thanks

Response from Helen Bowmer, Admin Services Manager (Eastern Services), Nightingale Hospital, Exeter (Eastern Services), Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust 5 months ago
We are preparing to make a change
Helen Bowmer
Admin Services Manager (Eastern Services), Nightingale Hospital, Exeter (Eastern Services),
Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 06/02/2025 at 12:01
Published on Care Opinion at 12:17

picture of Helen Bowmer

Dear Suzational,

Thank you for your response. We have spoken about the use of paper in our Admin Team Meeting this morning. Can I check a few things with you for our learning. We were hoping you could confirm whether you have signed up to the My Care patient portal? If you have it would be really useful if you could provide us with some sort of testimonial we could us so that we have the a patient's positive experience we could share with others who might be hesitant to swap to something digital.

We also just wanted to check if this was all Rheumatology letters and what the contents were as the team were uncertain why you would have received so much so we wanted to check our processes.

Please can you email rduh.nightingaleexeterenquiries@nhs.net.

Many thanks

Helen Bowmer

Admin Services Manager

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by Suzational (the patient)

Hi Helen

All the letters were to do with my appointment at Rheumotology at Nightingale hospital. I have kept them for reference. It may help to know I did have to phone the Dept as the on line appointment time was too early for me as a disabled person to get to coming from Tiverton & the parking facilities etc (my Daughter me) so I phoned to all for a later appointment time I could manage physically.

I got the first changed appointment letter through the post quite promptly, but then another exactly the same strives through the post a few days later.

The reason I phoned instead of dealing with on line was because the web site did not respond so went the old fashioned route!

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