This week my husband attended an orthopaedic outpatient appointment at Derriford Hospital scheduled for 15.10. It was on time when we arrived at 15.00 but suddenly became late and he was eventually seen at 16.05 - almost an hour late. We have an hour's journey to and from the hospital so the total time taken was the entire afternoon, which as he is self employed means he has to make the time up later.
The following day I had an appointment with the Colorectal Endoscopy Unit at 16.00. On arrival I was not informed of any delay. At 17.00 I asked if I was ever going to be seen and was told it was a busy clinic and they were running late. I was finally seen at 17.30. An hour and a half wait is not acceptable in my opinion. It meant I eventually got home at 19.00 having left at 14.45 in order to find a parking space (another issue that needs addressing).
Although the staff are always kind, courteous and apologetic and it clearly is not their fault, something is going wrong with admin that these clinics always run so late. These are not isolated incidents and we have had many experiences of late running in the past 6 years that we have been regular patients.
Something needs to be done to sort this out. Clearly too many patients are being booked in at the same time or appointments are taking longer than allowed for. I know the NHS does a wonderful job with poor resources and not enough staff but this must change. I would happily pay more tax if this would help improve the system.
"Clinics running late"
About: Derriford Hospital / Colorectal surgery Derriford Hospital Colorectal surgery PL6 8DH Derriford Hospital / Trauma and orthopaedics Derriford Hospital Trauma and orthopaedics PL6 8DH
Posted by JeanGenie (as ),
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Update posted by JeanGenie (the patient) 10 years ago
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