"Like A Ghost Clinic..."

I attended for an electrophysiology appointment in clinic 3 yesterday at Lincoln County Hospital.

I was surprised to find no staff front of house.

I was not informed in advance about electronic check-in but in any case did the electronic check-in.

The system is ambiguous and it is quite conceivable that patients will end up waiting in the wrong clinic. Surely the electronic terminal should advise you are in the correct clinic area?

I waited around 45 minutes and finally found a member of staff to speak to.

Only at that point was I told the physiologist had been called away for an 'emergency'...

If you intend to pursue purely electronic administration for these clinics there needs to be a system in place to communicate to patients in circumstances such as these.

If I had not sought out a staff member we would have not been informed.

You have posters up in the hospital regarding your aims to provide patient centred care and what I received yesterday was totally patient uncentred

All of our family have spent many years working in the NHS and outside it and you should know you cannot run clinics satisfactorily using staff who are also on emergency duty.

We understand there is a move to centralise hospital services in Lincolnshire.

A 2 hour round trip, no staff, no communication and not being seen is presumably not what you are going to be putting forwards in the consultation...