"Why didn't I get a letter of cancellation at the very least?"

My 14 yr old son has a severely twisted nose. He can't breathe out of it at all, and has suffered with it getting worse and worse for three years. It has never been broken, it just started to grow malformed when he was about 11. Every month it is worse.

So a year ago we went to the GP who got us an appointment at ENT at S. M Hospital, we had to wait almost 4 months. We saw a person who took a brief look up his nose and said he will need an operation, but not until a couple more years. We left heartbroken, as he can't eat or drink properly, he can't ever go out as he is so self-conscious of his extremely loud snoring/breathing sounds, and he has no social life, no friends, and nothing he can do, as he suffers from severe asthma too, (has all his life) so he has extreme trouble even using his inhaler spacers every day, and his whole life is a complete nightmare of simply trying to breathe. A blessing other people take for granted.

So we went away again, and after a few more months of it getting increasingly worse again, AND from sore throats and blocked throats and feeling swollen in his neck, and a constant streaming out of one side of his nose getting even worse, we asked for a second opinion.

Our GP made another appointment, and we waited almost 4 months for that too. So now we are 4 years in to this daily pain and strife and almost a year since we first asked for help. We turned up today for this appointment, (it takes us 3/4 of an hour) and the receptionist just blankly said sorry, that our appointment had been cancelled, and we had been made another one for the end of January.  I said "Why? ! ! And why didn't I get a letter of cancellation at the very least? ! It's taken us almost an hour to get here and you just tell me to go away and wait another 3 months, without any explanation? ! " and we were just told it wasn't their fault, it's the ENT dept, the receptionist just says when it's been changed.  

So my very very upset son and I just had to walk away and go home, facing another 3 months of pain and illness with no end in sight. This shouldn't happen, but it's what I have come to expect of a hospital like Stoke Mandeville.