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Care Opinion

Appointment delays

Posted By Odp

"Appointment delays"

About: Crosshouse Hospital / Dermatology University Hospital Ayr / Dermatology

(as a parent/guardian),

My daughter has been having regular appointments with dermatology for 5 years now. She has polymorphic light eruption and every single year we have missed the chance to "harden" her skin with UV light therapy. This year however we had an appointment in January and we decided we had got in at the right time this year to have the UV treatment before spring. This treatment is time critical if you do not have it before the end of April there is no point in doing it at all.

It has taken over 8 weeks to be offered the First treatment appointment in March.   Because I work and my husband works offshore.  And because of this I had to change this appointment. But there are no appointments until the week of the beginning of April and they don't even know when these appointments will be yet because of the Easter holidays. 

Because the initial appointment took so long she is no longer going to be able to have this treatment. She will suffer like every other year during the spring and summer. I am really disappointed. 

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Responses

Response from NHS Ayrshire and Arran 4 years ago
NHS Ayrshire and Arran

Submitted on 13/03/2020 at 17:19
Published on Care Opinion at 17:19

Dear Odp

I am sorry that the appointments given have been unsuitable and understand you are trying to juggle work and family committments, especially when your husband is away with work.

The desentitisation with phototherapy requires treatment 3 times weekly for 5 weeks and this can be difficult, for a variety of reasons, for patients to commit to. We would delay commencing treatment until the Spring months (March/April/May) and can only apologise if this had not been explained as I can imagine your frustration feeling that your daughter had been left waiting for treatment to start, This is to ensure that the skin is desensitised by summer time.

We have a specific clinic for patients having phototherapy to undergo Minimal Erythema testing that requires 2 appointments usually held on Thursday and Friday afternoon and due to the public holiday our department will be closed on Good Friday. We are looking to hold the clinic on different days that week and that is why we cannot yet confirm dates and times as the clinic rooms are used every day and trying rearrange the clinic and staffing can be a challenge.

I would be grateful if you could contact me on 01563 827923 so I can get further details to see if I can offer alternative arrangements.

Kind regards

Sandra Hanlon

Dermatology Senior Charge Nurse

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