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No appointments available for foot operation

Posted By Wooded159

"No appointments available for foot operation"

About: Devon Access and Referral Team (DART)

(as a relative),

My husband needs an operation on his foot. We rang the Devon DART only to be told there are no appointments at all and he is on a waiting list.

He is in constant pain and it is affecting both his work and private life. He will literally go to any hospital, he just needs it sorting.

I also had an operation on my foot and I found it easy to get an appointment before the new DART service was in place.

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Responses

Response from John Tovey, Business Manager, Devon Access & Referral Team 13 years ago
John Tovey
Business Manager,
Devon Access & Referral Team

Submitted on 01/09/2010 at 16:44
Published on Care Opinion on 02/09/2010 at 01:00

Dear Wooded159

Thank you for taking the time to send us your comments as we do find it very helpful to get feedback from our patients. I am sorry that you were unable to get an appointment for your husband and realise this must be very frustrating for both of you. I can only say that DART was put in place to try and make the process of getting an appointment easier for patients.

I can see though how this may not seem to be the case if your husband is finding it harder to get an appointment than you did yourself. I am aware that there is currently a lot of demand for consultants who run a specialist service for foot/ankle problems and I expect this is why your husband has had problems getting his appointment. We do work closely with the hospitals in Devon to try and minimise the time that you have to wait and you may be aware that there is now an NHS Constitution which sets out that patients have a right to be treated within a maximum of 18 weeks.

If you were advised that you had been added to the list for a certain Hospital I would hope that you would receive an appointment from them within a reasonably short time. If you do not hear from them please do contact our patient helpline on 01626 883888 and we would be happy to follow this up for you.

Kind Regards

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