"Waited for an hour to be seen, only to have a 3 minute appointment"

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us. I was sorry to hear of your recent experience in the Eye Unit at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. In terms of your appointment, patients are usually referred by their GP and then they receive a letter to ask them to call the “choose and book” team to arrange a preferred appointment time. We are aware of the potential for patients having to wait in the department and are working to address this, as we appreciate this can cause frustration.

I appreciate that it can be frustrating if you are seen by a different doctor and I can confirm that an additional Consultant has recently been employed, but it is often the case with trainee doctors that they change on a regular basis.

I would like to thank you once again for taking the time to share your experience with us, as feedback from our patients is always appreciated

I am very sorry to hear about your experience of the West of England Eye Unit at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. The West of England Eye Unit see an average of 250 patients per day and, due to the quantity of patients through the department, we are unable to facilitate ad-hoc appointments. All appointments are made via GP referrals and then through the central choose and book team. However, we do provide an emergency service should you feel your eye condition is serious enough and cannot wait to go through the normal booking system. The emergency eye room is situated within the Emergency Department. We are aware of the waiting times and we as a Trust strive to improve the patients’ experience. Waiting times are an area that is constantly being addressed. All appointment letters do state that you could have a wait of up to 3 hours and longer waiting times can sometimes be due the type of eye drops that need to be administered. Due to the quantity of patients through the department and the ever increasing demand for ophthalmology appointments we have now out grown the size of our department and we are currently taking steps to address this with the full support of the wider organisation. Unfortunately, these current spatial difficulties do also add some additional waiting time for patients and we apologise for this. As a Trust we employ highly skilled staff members from many cultural backgrounds. However, clear communication with our patients is extremely important to us so we will ensure that your comments in this area are acted upon. Once again I apologise for your experience in the West of England Eye Unit. We will continue to improve the service we provide and we always welcome feedback from patients. Should you wish to discuss your concerns further, please contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) on 01392 202093.