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Waiting times and dreadful admin

Posted By Fortheloveofgodhelpme

"Waiting times and dreadful admin"

About: West London NHS Trust / Gender Identity Clinic

(as the patient),

My appointment to gain my last signature for referral for surgery was cancelled and had to wait a further two months. I then gained that signature in July.

A senior member of the clinical team could not answer any of my questions as to what happens next and gave me a telephone number for the surgical team.

After repeated calls to them I received a call in the last few days with the news that, until they receive the letter from The Charing Cross GIC, I am not on the waiting list. They have not received my referral and therfore am still not on the list.

I was told that from the point of referral, the waiting time is around 12-18 months. That is inaccurate... I was expecting to have been referred back in may and would be 3 months into my waiting time. It's now August and I'm still not even on the list yet.

Charing Cross GIC will not even answer the telephone or return my messages. I don't know if they are just slow at typing letters or they have once again lost my file. If the file has been misplaced again, I'll never get referred.

This is utterly distressing, I'm crying with sadness and frustration. Can you not see the unnecessary pain and anxiety you are causing.

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Responses

Response from Lee Wroth, Service Manager, West London NHS Trust 7 years ago
Lee Wroth
Service Manager,
West London NHS Trust

Submitted on 09/08/2016 at 12:52
Published on Care Opinion at 15:33

We are very sorry to read of your frustration at dealing with the GIC and apologise sincerely for causing such feelings.

It is of real concern that we read you spoke to a 'senior member of the clinical team' who could not answer your questions re what happens next, and would ask that you contact us directly so that we can investigate this properly.

With regard to your concern about getting through via the telephone to the service, we understand your frustrations here and again apologise. We are currently recruiting a number of administrative staff and are aiming to improve our performance in this area as a matter of urgency.

Re your comment: 'I don't know if they are just slow at typing letters' we have had some significant backlogs in our typing, however, we have worked hard to reduce these significantly. We should by the end of September at the latest, be completely up-to-date. We understand that our backlogs have some of our service users anxiety for which we are truly sorry. We trust that you will see the reductions in the typing backlog as a step forward.

Regards

Lee Wroth - Service Manager, Gender Identity Clinic

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