"Medical staff great communication re..."

Wonderful service from medical staff during cataract operation and want to give this a 5 and great thanks.

but appointment system for follow ups abysmal - you need a lot of time and energy and resolve to deal with this. I have no idea why I couldn't just be given a follow up appointment time and date at the time of the operation - easier, simpler and more time efficient all round.

Instead, despite usually being emailed appointments, a letter came thru the post several days later for a time I could not make. I rang the number as instructed on the letter and after many attempts to get thru, was told that they were not able to re-arrange the appointment on this number, despite being asked to do so on the letter, and I would have to ring another number - was cut off before I could get this. Eventually given the number, than to be told when I got thus that this was not the right number either. And so on - 6 phone calls and an hour and a half later someone re-arranged for me.

When I asked to speak to the manager of the admin team, I was told that the letter was an old 'generic' one and that although they had asked for the wording/phone no to be changed( which would take a few words of text and a minute or so to do!!) the IT team would not allow this. Several staff I spoke to said something similar. They suggested complaining to PALS but from past experience on similar matters I know what a complete waste of time this is - PALS seems to be a holding operation which just tells you they will look into it and review it - the outcome usually being that no such 'generic' letters can be altered until there is an overall review of communications!! How wasteful and inefficient for everyone when it is obvious that half a line of text could avoid frustration and unnecessary time for everyone. Especially when after an eye operation, trying to read letters and make phone calls is difficult.