"Appointments fiasco"

MRI APPOINTMENTS: I had an MRI appointment on the 18/4/2014 at 14.30 hrs which I kept. On Friday 9/5/2014 I received another letter of appointment for the same MRI for the 10/5/2014 at 13.30 being a Saturday, as I was out all day and could not cancel as the department was closed until Monday morning. The letter was dated 2/5/2014 and posted 2nd class mail on the 7/5/2014. Had I attended the appointment there would have been the cost of a wasted MRI scan. By not attending there was a wasted appointment that someone else could have benefitted from. I telephoned on the Monday morning, 12/5/2014 and explained what had occurred and was told it would be marked as cancelled! 2nd problem: On the same Monday 12/5/2014 I received a letter of appointment for an Ophthalmology outpatient appointment at Crawley Hospital. Letter dated 30/4/2013, appointment date 30/4/2014 and this letter was posted on 9/5/2014 when I telephoned the appointments department to explain the problem they transferred me to the secretary whom I was told would make the new appointment. Wrong - this lady was not only rude but very abrasive and insisted that I had no right to call her but that I should have contacted the appointments department and they would make a new appointment. I had to remind her that I had not only done that but that the appointment was made for a date that had indeed passed by now some 12 days, and not to take out her frustration on me. She took my details and said she would have to pass this back to the appointments department. After I stated that the appointment department seemed to be a mess she agreed and said they had no idea of what they were doing. On Monday19/5/2014 my new appointment arrived and the new date: 19/11/2014 at 11.45. almost 7 months after the original appointment. Why so long to wait. I have a yearly apppointment with an Ophthalmologist and this will now be almost 2 years from my last appointment. Each year there has been an issue with these appointments. I am a carer to my husband who has dementia and I find it very difficult to re-arrange appointments at the best of times let alone be given an appointment for the following day or some 7 months time. This issue needs to be sorted out . It is no wonder the NHS is haemorrhaging money from missed appointments and duplicate proceedures.