"Not fit for purpose. "

This has been one mess up after another. First of all they refused to take on any patient that doesn't have a mobile phone. We live in a mobile phone black spot so naturally we don't have one. Instead of finding an alternative solution they refused to accept the referral. This is unacceptable. The GP surgery tried to talk to them but they said the same to them and rejected the referral. I had to contact the CQC in order to get them to change their policy.

We then had to be re-referred. This meant that two more weeks were wasted.

Finally we were able to have the appointment. The local staff were lovely. They recommended a GI referral to be made through our GP surgery. They assured me that the report would immediately be sent electronically to the GP surgery. But it wasn't.

I had to ring them 10 days later and at first they didn't take me seriously until they realised that 10 days is longer than the 5 working days they say it will take. Finally the report was sent to the GP surgery. In total this has lead to a delay of several weeks over all for the referral to Gastroenterology.

This service is not fit for purpose.