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Admin error resulting in delay in appointment

Posted By kevinprws_118

"Admin error resulting in delay in appointment"

About: Sidwell Street Clinic / Exeter Sexual Health

(as a service user),

During my visit to Devon Sexual Health’s Exeter site in mid Nov 2025, I was made to wait for a total of 1 hour 50 minutes before I was seen for my PrEP appointment.

This as it turned out was an admin mistake made by reception who forgot to mark me as arrived when I was checked in. When booking the appointment I was told I should allow up to 90 minutes for the appointment, and when I arrived, the waiting area was busy so I did not suspect there was an issue until after over an hour of wait. When I realised something isn’t right, I spoke to the receptionist who offered me no compassion at all. It was not until later on when I was seen by the specialist nurse that I was told it was this admin error that resulted in the long wait.

I would love to compliment the nurse though, who was polite and professional and offered me much more compassion than the receptionist. Her name is Lauren and she deserves the compliment.

I hope my feedback can help you improve the service. Over the years I’ve been using DSH I’ve never had any complaints about the service. I’m sure this is just a single case. I would like a response regarding this situation please.

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Responses

Response from April Brooks, Lead Nurse - Sexual Health, Devon Sexual Health, Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust 4 hours ago
April Brooks
Lead Nurse - Sexual Health, Devon Sexual Health,
Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 28/11/2025 at 13:11
Published on Care Opinion at 13:11

picture of April Brooks

Hi kevinprws_118,

I am sorry you had such a long wait when you attended the Exeter clinic. Thank you for providing feedback about the service in a way that you hope it improves the service in the future. We really appreciate this.

As you have also provided information about this issue via one of the other Trust feedback routes, we have already talked on the phone together earlier this week. I hope you don’t mind me repeating some of our discussion via this forum too, so patients can be aware how we have addressed the concerns raised.

Unfortunately, I believe a degree of human error was involved in this situation; however, I recognise that the communication between the reception team and yourself was not to the usual standard I would expect from the service. Once the problem had been identified, I would have expected the reception team to explain what was happening behind the scenes to rectify the situation, and it is clear this response did not happen effectively on that day. I will work with our lead receptionist and the team themselves to look at where we can improve communication with patients when problems or concerns are highlighted. The team are usually fantastic at what they do and I know they will want to work hard to address this issue to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

When we talked on the phone, we discussed the new features of the Devon Sexual Health Patient Health Record (PHR) system, that allows registered patients to check-in to a pre-arranged appointment once they arrive in the clinic. This may be useful particularly at times when the receptionists are very busy or when a patient wishes to minimise interactions with staff. I hope you will be able to successfully use this at your next visit. https://www.devonsexualhealth.nhs.uk/our-clinics/myphr/

It's great to hear the positive feedback about our superstar nurse Lauren, and I will ensure this is passed to her directly. I would also like to acknowledge and recognise that despite being a regular service-user over a number of years, you have never previously had any issues – this is great news! We look forward to welcoming you again in clinic next time you need us.

Best wishes,

April Brooks

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