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Disappointing follow up appointments

Story from nhs.uk

"Disappointing follow up appointments"

About: Derriford Hospital

Had a wisdom tooth removed unfortunately had complications no fault of the surgeon. I was seen on the 26th April as an outpatient, was told to come back in a fortnight, yet had to wait 3 weeks only for that appt to be cancelled for no reason. So will now be waiting 6 weeks with an appt not with my surgeon and potentially leaving me with permanent paralysis due to the delay. I appreciate the NHS is stretched but if a patient is told come back in 2 weeks and have to wait 6 is not acceptable. During a telephone conversation earlier today I was told there were appts this week, but they didn't contact me. Why tell me this? It just causes me more anguish knowing I could have been seen

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Responses

Response from Derriford Hospital 2 years ago
Derriford Hospital

Submitted on 30/06/2021 at 16:01
Published on nhs.uk at 21:25

We are truly sorry that the patient, or indeed any patients are not seen within a time that they are led to believe should happen. Unfortunately at present, our department is receiving an increase in cancer referrals from both GPs and dentists. We have also seen an increase in urgent appointments. This has resulted in routine patients needing to be moved to allow us to see our urgent and cancer patients as soon as possible given the urgency of their referral. We do appreciate that this would seem unfair to a patient who also needs to be seen and is waiting for an appointment. We can assure patients that this is always done based on clinical advice and referral priority. In addition we are constantly looking at ways of improving utilisation and striving to see all of our patients within a suitable timeframe.

We apologise to any patient that is affected by a change in their appointment date but this is only ever done as a last resort and on clinical priority.

If you would like your concerns looked into further, then please do not hesitate to get in touch with our PALS team on 01752439884 or plh-tr.pals@nhs.net quoting reference 63913.

Thank you

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