"Best hospital in the area - some areas could..."

A&E and in-patient, orthopedics, were very good. Out patient care and the hospital switchboard are not as good. Post-operative follow-up to orthopedic surgery, which left a significant ulcerated wound, started with a Plastic-surgery out-patient appointment. There the dressing was removed but there was no nurse who was trained to put on a replacement. I ended up with a basic sticking plaster and a visit to my GP's clinic, 10 miles away, where the nurses are trained! The GP nurses were very unhappy because removing the adhesive plaster damages the newly forming skin that is trying to close the wound. Following 6 weeks of care by the GP nurses the wound is healed so that I can cancel the second plastic surgery follow-up. Trying to make contact was unreasonably difficult. The appointment letter quotes the hospital fax number (in two places) as the number to call. It also quotes a freephone number to call to cancel an appointment - that number is no longer in service. Contacting through the switchboard's menu system routinely results in "we are experiencing a high call volume, please call back - then automated hang up." It took two hours to cancel the appointment.