"The eye clinic at Tameside General Hospital"

My optician referred me to my GP re an eye condition. My GP sent the optician's detailed comprehensive letter to Tameside General Hospital as a referral. Ten weeks of waiting later, I had a 5 minute inspection at Tameside, only to be referred on again to Rochdale, I. e. with yet more weeks of waiting.

Up to a few years ago I worked as a nurse at acute units in London and Berkshire. There, to minimise the consultants' workload and minimise waiting times for patients, it was usual that the consultant studied GP referral letters to decide whether it was necessary to examine the patient further, or rather refer them immediately on to another treatment facility, as has in fact happened to me.

I don't understand the point of the eye clinic at Tameside if it offers no opthalmic treatment. It was obvious what treatment I needed from the optician's letter. So why take the consultant's time and mine to tell me what I already knew rather than refer me immediately to Rochdale? In the interim I am not able to drive - for month after month, causing me considerable incovenience.