"There is no under rating the honesty, ..."

What I liked

There is no under rating the honesty, friendliness and professionalism of the staff. Having been referred by my dentist I received an appointment in a reasonable amount of time. Although I waited a long time to be seen this was explained in the letters I received from the hospital. The consultant took time to explain things in detail using appropriate user friendly language.

What could be improved

I was informed that the treatment that I was referred for was no longer carried out at the dental hospital other than by 4th year dental students and no other treatment was offered other than advice to pay privately for a consultant in endodontics. While this advice was gratefully received the whole experience felt like a waste of my time and that of the staff at the dental hospital. I was left very distressed at this as I had become increasing more anxious at the thought of dental treatment after several painful attempts and had overcome my anxiety to attend by telling myself that it would soon be all over. While I understand issues of capacity, maybe the hospital needs to better inform their collegues in primary care of the services they do and do not provide.

Anything else?

After the visit I returned home to 2 messages left that morning from the hospital asking me to attend for my appointment earlier to go for x-rays. Requests like this are too late for the busy working person and maybe better planning in the appointments could avoid situations like this.