"Cancellation of appointment"

I do not take lightly in sending this, but I do not know what to do next.

At the beginning of this year I had my appointment with a plastic surgery consultant - this was cancelled due to COVID 19 and that was after a mix up at the hospital with previous appointments. I eventually got an appointment for August, this ended up being a telephone consultation, but as I have been attending clinic for a couple of years it was fine.

I was referred to St Johns for a further procedure. After waiting for a couple of months and not hearing anything I telephoned the appointments number at St Johns, gave my details reference number etc, and was told an appointment had been made for me on the 16th October. Only after receiving a letter this was not the date stated, the letter stated that an appointment had been cancelled for the 6th November and changed to the 10th November. I telephoned the appointments system to see what had happened, but they could not give me an explanation. Then on Wednesday 4th November I received a letter stating that my appointment on the 10th November had been cancelled. In distress, I telephoned the appointments number and after giving all my details, asked why it had been cancelled, although the operator was very pleasant, they could not help me but transferred me to the secretary. After talking to them, they said they would call back later that day after looking into it.

The secretary did call me back but could not help at that time as they had not been able to contact the specialist, who was in a clinic, so sent an email. Also informed me that for some reason I had been taken off the list but did not understand why. As they would be off on Thursday, explained that I would not hear anything before Friday but was promised I would receive a call then. Also stated that unfortunately the consultant was on holiday that week. I telephoned St John’s this morning and spoke to someone in the plastic surgery department who said they believed that it was being looked into and transferred me to the secretary again. Again the secretary has been absolutely brilliant in trying to get to the bottom of this and explained that I had been put on the wrong list, but that they were trying to get me an appointment. I telephoned again in the afternoon, as I had not heard anything. I was told that they still had not heard anything and it would be Tuesday before I heard back.

I have been waiting the best part of a year and my hand is extremely painful and I am now in constant pain. I write this as I feel badly let own by the system. Someone has made a terrible error in taking me off the list and cancelling my appointment. I just want my procedure to go ahead as planned, for my benefit and the fact that my husband had arranged to take time of work and my work gave me permission for a leave of absence.