"An easier way to arrange follow up appointments"

Want to say a huge thank you to Mr Bryce and the staff at the day surgery unit in Wishaw General Hospital. An appointment had been booked however unfortunately the booked surgeons list was cancelled at very short notice and admin staff were unable to let us know. Thankfully the staff and endoscopy coordinator were able to arrange for Mr Bryce to complete the procedure instead. This was greatly appreciated. I know all of the staff are very overworked.

The only issue we had was getting a follow up appointment arranged. We were told to contact our upper GI nurses to get them to arrange the appointment. It is often very difficult to get a hold of these nurses and we left a message on their answer machine on returning home. 24 hours later the cancer coordinator called back to advise that they do not routinely arrange endoscope appointments. After a lot of phone calls, we were eventually contacted by the endoscopy booking team and an appointment was arranged for 4 weeks.

There must be an easier way to arrange follow up appointments. Every other clinic can book follow up appointments directly, why can’t endoscopy, and why are the nursing staff on the day surgery unit under the impression that the upper GI nurses arrange follow up? People in our position who require repeat procedures are under a lot of stress and often have a lot of appointments to juggle so anything that can be done to help reduce stress would be beneficial.