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Care Opinion

Waiting times and communication

Posted By Vassa

"Waiting times and communication"

About: Highly Specialist Services / Gender Identity Service (GIS)

(as a service user),

Frustrating and concerning.

The waiting times for Porterbrook clinic are very high, but they are also completely opaque as a user. I joined the waiting list in June 2018, and I have no idea how much longer it will be before I am seen. There are sections of this site that refer to waiting times and suggest that the latest times can be found on this page: https://www.shsc.nhs.uk/services/gender-identity-clinic

This is no longer true, as this is no longer updated. This is frustrating and worrying. I would rather have vague ranges that at least gave me context than nothing.

Given the fact that there is so little (no? ) communication to people on waiting lists, it would be comforting to be able to find the information out somewhere.

The fact that this is not the case adds to the perception that the goals of the service are to deny care, not facilitate it.

To be clear, whilst the waiting times are very disappointing, I have accepted this for now as I can see that some of the causes are outside of your control. My frustration comes from the lack of communication around them.

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Responses

Response from Katie Roe, Business and Performance Manager, Gender Identity Clinic, SHSC 4 years ago
Katie Roe
Business and Performance Manager, Gender Identity Clinic,
SHSC

Submitted on 18/03/2020 at 15:14
Published on Care Opinion on 19/03/2020 at 09:53

Dear Vassa,

Thank you for sharing your feedback and I am sorry that you feel disappointed and frustrated.

My team and I are aware that the waiting times and information have been causing distress and dissatisfaction to some of the people accessing our service.

We appreciate how difficult it may feel not knowing when you might be seen by the service. Due to a number of variables, we took a management decision to temporarily remove our waiting times while we were able to analyse and review to understand the trends. We are now in a position to be able to provide an estimated waiting time again and this will be published on a website in the coming week.

I apologise for the problems you have experienced in relation to our letters, email and telephone response service. We are in the process of implementing a new telephone triage system aimed at directing enquiries more efficiently, whilst enabling the most effective use of resource within the service.

You are more than welcome to contact me or the service directly if you would like me to look further into the issues raised.

Kind regards,

Katie

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