"Shocking admin"

On 19 Jul 2024, I had an appointment with a specialist at Sops and requested a referral to a team at the Otology Dept. The consultant was excellent and made me aware that there was a 9 month waiting list.

When this time approached, I called the waiting list department at Uclh to be told that I was not on the list at all.

I then called Sops who said they would contact the specialist and call me back the next day.

I did not receive a call so contacted them myself to be told that they can only refer to Wexham (which I had specifically stated I did not want to go to) and, as well as the Wexham referral, a letter had been posted to Uclh.

No help was offered at all so I found myself not only having wasted almost a year, but not on any list going forward.

I contacted Pals to ask for help and they replied to say that the referral was being sent by email but they could not guarantee that I would receive any priority.

I then contacted Sops again to request copies of any email or other types of correspondence concerning the referral from 19/7/24 but was constantly misunderstood and sent the wrong information (the last message was received at 1658 on Friday 30/5, the timing of which left no hope for a reply before the weekend).

I still have no evidence that an email referral was sent to Wexham Park, that a letter was actually posted to Uclh or that a subsequent referral has been made to Uclh. All I have received is a copy of a letter sent to the doctors surgery, there should surely be a copy that has the correct hospital address at Uclh on it? When I requested copies of emails sent/received, I was just given someones email address! Eventually, I was able to check with Uclh themselves that they had received a referral on 28/5/25.

At no point have I received even a shred of an apology for the situation, which has not been of my making at all. I have had to spend hours of my time trying to sort this out and I find the level of incompetence shown by the administration at Sops to be woefully inadequate. As an Armed Forces Veteran, I always did my best in my duty of care towards others. I had hoped to be treated with more respect.