"Thoracic medicine outpatient appointment"

I had a chest X-ray at your hospital on 4 8 17 at the request of my GP following discharge from the Homerton in May (pneumonia).

After seeing the X-ray report, I was referred to the Thoracic Medicine Clinic.

I received a letter from you dated 16 8 17 asking me to phone for an appointment.

The booking clerk I spoke to (eventually) told me there were no available appointments within the six week waiting time guidelines. The clerk told me the referral would be forwarded to a service manager who would find me an appointment and would be in contact in 7-10 days.

I waited, but heard nothing.

I then received a letter from you dated 26 8 17 telling me that as I had failed to make contact with you, I had been discharged back to my GP.

Obviously I phoned you straightaway and the booking clerk I spoke to this time told me exactly the same thing as I had been told the first time I phoned, ie, that they would "escalate" the request to a service manager, etc.

I received a phone call from a service manager on 1 9 17 saying that they had received my letter and that I would be phoned back the following day.

There has been no phone call or letter since and it is now 18 9 17.

It is now well over the six week waiting time guidelines and I still do not even have an appointment date, let alone been seen in the clinic.

I do not want to end up phoning Central Appointments a third time, only to be told exactly the same thing all over again by some booking clerk who sounds like they are reading from a rehearsed script.

I am a 70 year old disabled pensioner, so who knows, I may not have the luxury of waiting until the middle of 2018 before I eventually get an appointment,.

I have been attending the Homerton on and off ever since it was built and always rated it highly in the past, but I feel it has gone downhill in terms of patient care in recent times.

Still waiting.