"Rearranging a double booked appointment"

Story posted on behalf of a caller to Healthwatch Liverpool:

I had an appointment booked in the opthamology department recently, but when I arrived the appointment had been double booked. The other person was seen in the appointment slot and I wasn't.

I was told I would have to rearrange the appointment using the "choose and book" system. I thought I would have to go home and do this by phone, but I later found there is a phone in the department itself you can do this from. Luckily I realised this before I went home so was able to rebook for quite soon after the original appointment.

However, I feel frustrated that neither the staff in the department or other patients seemed to know about this phone and it was fortunate that I found out about it myself. Otherwise I would have had to make the journey home and wasted a day to rearrange the appointment.

I think these phones should be more prominently displayed and the staff should tell patients about them so they can rearrange their appointments more easily.