I was diagnosed with Glaucoma in Oct 2014 and during the diagnosis process my consultant found something suspicious on my retina and referred me immediately to another department for an urgent check. I was really impressed with the speed of referral and the care I was given in connection with this issue so a big thanks to all the teams concerned. It was excellent health care and I felt like I was in good hands. Since then I've returned to the Glaucoma Clinic on more than one occasion to be treated for that which has unfortunately, left me less impressed. I'm really sorry to say this as the medical team are undoubtedly excellent and the admin is reasonably efficient but the appointment system is a disaster. I waited for over three and a half hours on my first visit, three for the second and it was a bit quicker the other week with a 2.5 hr wait. I'm not alone, everyone else is in the same position and although it is frustrating, I'm reasonably fit and can cope, but a high proportion of the patients who attend that clinic are elderly, frail with mobility problems and some travel considerable distance to wait in a draughty waiting room for three hours. The system for calling patients is awful, (people often don't hear if the doctors come out of the examination area and only call names along the side corridor) the lay out is dreadful; so the noise, cold draughts, information displays and long waits are all letting an excellent hospital down. There must be a way to solve this. Are there some systems you could introduce so that people could turn up to be guaranteed a slot within an hour? At the moment the information you put up about average waiting times is woefully inaccurate which I think just aggravates people. It would be better for your staff too as they are under relentless pressure to clear the waiting room and have to contend with grumpy patients. As do the people on the reception. Can you introduce some sort of audio/visual so that people can have up to date information and see as well as hear their names? I do think Moorfields is a fantastic hospital and I'm very grateful for everything you have done for my eye care but it really saddens me that this awful appointments system seems to be accepted as the norm and nothing can be done to solve the long waiting times. I'm sure there is as solution and I'd be happy to contribute ideas.
"Glaucoma service"
About: Moorfields Eye Hospital (City Road Campus) Moorfields Eye Hospital (City Road Campus) London EC1V 2PD
Posted via nhs.uk
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