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Podiatry Services appointment policy

Posted By Hollyanna

"Podiatry Services appointment policy"

About: Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust

(as a service user),

For about many years I have had orthotics made for me by the above service. I retired about several years ago and am still active, physically, mentally and socially, which you might think is something to be encouraged to keep people healthy. I recently had some new orthotics made and was sent an appointment to collect them, but I had not been asked about the date and it happened to fall while I will be away on holiday. I rang four weeks before the appointment and changed it. There was no problem about that.

The replacement appointment, on a new date, was for a time just after another engagement I had on that day. The time of that engagement was changed by the organizers, making it impossible to get to the podiatry appointment afterwards. The letter I had been sent about the new appointment said if I could not go or needed to change it, I should ring and let the Service know. When I did that, a full three weeks before the appointment, I felt that I was spoken to like a naughty child and told I could not make another appointment because I had already changed it once. I am apparently supposed to go to my extremely busy GP and ask for a referral as a "new patient", despite the fact that my tailor-made orthotics are ready and waiting to be collected! I was told there was no way around this as it is "Trust policy" and that they can't change my appointment because I "have plans". In other words, they have made a decision that anything else I may want to do is less important than an appointment to pick up new orthotics. Considering doctor's, dentist's and optician's appointments can be changed as necessary, what is so different about podiatry? I feel the policy is ridiculous and patronising. Instead of encouraging older people to be active and engage in society, It feels like we are to wait around for our podiatry appointments and make everything else in our lives subordinate to them.

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Responses

Response from Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust 7 years ago
We are preparing to make a change
Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 31/03/2017 at 14:16
Published on Care Opinion at 14:32

Dear Hollyanna

Thank you for taking the time to post your comments. We are so sorry to hear about your experience and that your felt let down by our service. We are disappointed as your experience does not reflect our Trust values, where we pride ourselves on our professionalism and communication skills. You have described your experience very well, and we will make sure the senior nursing team are made aware so they can cascade this to the team involved in your care.

To allow us to investigate this further, can I ask that you contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS), on 0161 206 2003 or email them directly on pals@srft.nhs.uk with further details of your appointment, so we can give you some further answers.

Kind regards.

Update posted by Hollyanna (a service user)

I think this is a very nice response. I will be in touch with PALS and hope not only that my own problem over appointments will be solved, but that the policy will be changed for everyone to make it more patient-friendly.

Update posted by Hollyanna (a service user)

I sent you my story the end of March and now its the end of April. Despite the apparently supportive response from the Trust, I have not been contacted about a new appointment to collect the orthotics that have been waiting for me since shortly after I saw the podiatrist on 20th January. The people at PALS say they are waiting to hear from Podiatry. I posted a formal complaint to the CEO of the Trust, as advised by PALS, but when I was contacted by the complaints team in April they said they did not know about the letter. It was sent 1st class, so I'm sure it would have arrived.

It looks as if the Podiatry Service is chaotic, to put it mildly, in my view, as if complaints are dealt with at snail's pace. I will be due another appointment with the podiatrist in January, a year after the last one, and I have now gone almost a third of the way through the year without the orthotics that have been made for me - and all because of a bureaucratic rule that says patients can't change appointments, even at several weeks' notice. Is anybody actually doing anything about this?

Update posted by Hollyanna (a service user)

I'm afraid I was very naive to place any faith in the reply from the Trust above. I have finally had a letter from them that misuses the word "cancel" when the appropriate word would be "rearrange". It claims I have "cancelled" four appointments since January 2016, making it sound as if I did not attend the podiatry clinic. In fact I simply rearranged three of the four appointments from times when I could not go to times when I could go and then I attended them! I would have done the same with the fourth one if I had been allowed to rearrange it. I would like to point out that appointments are sent out for times and dates of the Podiatry service's choosing, so there is quite a good chance of them not being suitable for patients. I have now been sent - as if it's a great concession - an appointment for a time and date later this month. I already have an engagement for that time, but no doubt I will again be prevented from rearranging the appointment. All I'm asking is that podiatry appointments are treated the same as those with dentists, opticians etc, i.e. not set in stone, but able to be changed with reasonable notice. Unfortunately, the attitude around podiatry is very grudging. It's "Take what you're offered or you won't get anything else". I'm considering taking this to the Health Service Ombudsman.

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