This is Care Opinion [siteRegion]. Did you want Care Opinion [usersRegionBasedOnIP]?
Care Opinion

Discharged after missing one appointment

Posted By throwaway2768

"Discharged after missing one appointment"

About: Inclusion Thurrock (Talking Therapies)

(as the patient),

Waited 5 months for assessment without any updates after initially being told a maximum of a few weeks. I was then dropped from the service after missing a single appointment, despite making Inclusion aware of my difficulties. There had been no check-up, or warning. Just a letter a week later stating I’d been discharged.

I personally feel this is absolutely disgusting. Being professionals in their field, they should know full well those with mental illness are going to have difficulties and may require extra care with things such as attendance etc. They should be working to help those struggling, not chucking them away at the first hurdle.

I can’t recommend Inclusion after my personal experience.

More about:
Do you have a similar story to tell? Tell your story & make a difference ››

Responses

Response from Mark Frost, Clinical Lead, Inclusion Thurrock NHS Talking Therapies 3 years ago
Mark Frost
Clinical Lead,
Inclusion Thurrock NHS Talking Therapies

Manage the team of therapists, and do some therapy myself.

Submitted on 20/11/2020 at 15:47
Published on Care Opinion at 16:02

Dear throwaway2768,

Thank you for your feedback, and I'm very sorry to hear of your experience with our service.

It's very rare for assessment appointments to take longer than a week, so five months is absolutely unacceptable and I would urge you to contact us so that I can look into this myself.

We generally try not to discharge patients immediately after missing an appointment and we do our best to help people by sending text message reminders a couple of days before the booked appointment time. Also, if someone misses an appointment we don't discharge them for a few days after the missed appointment so that it gives people an opportunity to contact us - we realise people forget, and sometimes things get in the way and this gives people a chance to give us a call and reschedule.

If we don't hear from someone who misses an appointment, we do discharge them from the service and let them know via a letter. We also point out in the letter that they are welcome to call us a re-refer when they are ready. In many cases, people call us when they get the letter and we rebook pretty much immediately - often, if it's a short time after missing their appointment we don't even need to reassess, we just offer them the next available appointment.

I'm really sorry that the experience you've shared with us doesn't match our expectations or procedures, and I would really welcome a conversation with you to discuss this.

Please call us on 01375 898680 and ask to speak with the Clinical Lead so that I can look into this and find out what happened in your particular case.

Many thanks,

Mark Frost

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful
Opinions
Next Response j
Previous Response k