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Lack of 21st Century communication

Posted By MrFraggle

"Lack of 21st Century communication"

About: NHS Lothian

(as a service user),

Almost a decade or so ago I signed up for Patient Ecomms communication system in the false belief that this would make it easier to get appointments etc to my inbox.

How wrong I was 10 years on a few departments seem to be connected in fact I can probably count on one hand the few that are. Most of my appointments etc come via snail mail which is pretty insecure.

Twice I have almost missed appointments because appointment letters have gone astray. Fortunately I received phone calls from the departments concerned due to cancellations.

But why most of NHS Lothians departments not connected why is it taking so long for NHS Lothian to update the system?

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Responses

Response from Louise Davies, Patient Experience Officer, Patient Experience Team, NHS Lothian 3 years ago
Louise Davies
Patient Experience Officer, Patient Experience Team,
NHS Lothian

Submitted on 31/01/2022 at 12:21
Published on Care Opinion at 12:21

picture of Louise Davies

Dear MrFraggle

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback regarding the Patient e-Communications system with us. I would like to assure you that this will be shared with the relevant management team to review.

I would like to apologise that I do not have any further information for you at this time.

Kind regards

Louise

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Update posted by MrFraggle (a service user)

Have just spoken to a cancer specialist nurse about getting scan results to me and this will be via snail mail and not Patient e-Communications which is absolutely shocking for a major department to not be connected.

Response from Karen Fraser, Patient Experience Officer, Patient Experience Team, NHS Lothian 3 years ago
Karen Fraser
Patient Experience Officer, Patient Experience Team,
NHS Lothian

Submitted on 02/02/2022 at 11:00
Published on Care Opinion at 11:02

Dear Mr Fraggle

Thank you for providing further feedback regarding the use of Patient e-communications. Please be assured that your feedback was shared with the appropriate management team. They have informed me that at present not all services within NHS Lothian use this means of communication and the services that do only use it for administration type letters (appointments, waiting lists, cancellations) and that no clinical letters are sent using this system. Whilst I appreciate that e-communication is your preferred method of communication I can only apologise that it is not possible to send all communications to you in this way.

Kind regards

Karen

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Update posted by MrFraggle (a service user)

Your wording would suggest that only a few services do not use this service for communication with patients but in my experience in reality only a very few are in fact to date only the ENT department communicates using this service which is quite ridiculous in the 21st century.

Not sure why you mentioned clinical letters as I certainly have not. My complaint is not receiving appointment notifications using this method because departments are not connected to the service, so I find your apology is pointless and uncalled for. In fact I find your response patronising as I have never asked for clinical information being sent using this service.

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