"The co-ordinated activities of ..."

What could be improved

The co-ordinated activities of department staff.

Anything else?

I hope the Head of Rheumatology reads these comments! The level of co-ordination between staff (appointments, consultants, nurses, secretaries) in the Rheumatology department is troubling. For example, I have experienced failure to prepare and forward a consultant's letter to my GP (this was not available for the follow up appointment with the nurse leaving me to inform the nurse of the details of my last consultation and the medication prescribed), insufficient medication being prescribed to cover the period until next appointment (resulting in an unplanned trip to the hospital in order to resolve), a medication record book not being issued by the consultant (later issued by the nurse who said I should have received this at its commencement) and contradictory information offered by the consultant and nurse regarding who to contact should I experience side-effects (one says GP, the other says Hospital). Most individuals I have dealt with have been helpful but they do not appear to co-ordinate their team activities particularly well. I hope my experiences are not typical and matters do improve. My comments may refer to trivial matters but collectively they indicate that, for me at least, the control of patient administration could be improved.