"Sort out your admin - Answer the phone!"

The care and treatment at The Eastman is not in question. The admin, particularly answering the phones is unacceptable. I was given an appointment card without a time written on it and couldn't remember what we had agreed for the next appointment. I rang several times every day for 6 days, leaving a messsge everyday for someone to ring me. Nobody did. I rang PALS and again left messages. Noone rang me back. Two weeks later, as I was driving to The Eastman on the day of the appointment at the time I thought it might be I revcieved a phone call from a very angry sounding nurse asking me if I was cancelling my appointment! I said that it was quite the opposite and that I had left my messsges 2 weeks before!! I asked the nurse what time my appointment was and luckily had guessed correctly. When I arrived I questioned why nobody had rung me back. The receptionist said they write the messsges in a book with time and date. I questioned the nurse who had rung me and they said no such book existed! When I questioned the nurse further they said that, oh yes, there was a book but no dates or times were recorded! After my appointment I told the receptionist what the nurse had said and they were aghast! Nobody there cares if they answer the phone or reply to the messages. Admin is shocking! Don't bother replying to this with the number for PALS because they don't answer the phone either, or reply to messsges. please, please, please answer your phones. This is causing problems for your patients and ultimately must be costing the NHS money in missed appointments when you can't change or cancel or query an appointment. The department I visited was Orthodontics.