"Nearly a year to get an appointment ?"

Dear Anonymous

Sorry to hear you are having to wait so long for your Dermatology appointment.

I have spoken with the directorate manager to better understand the reason for this delay and have been asked to share the following response with you.

Dermatology Service Christchurch Hospital

For the last year, the Dermatology Department at Christchurch Hospital has seen an increased number of both cancer and routine referrals to its service.

Unfortunately, although we have increased the number of appointment slots to enable us to see the cancer referrals within the required two weeks, this has meant that our wait for a routine new patient appointment has lengthened as the number of referrals is still greater than the number of appointment slots we have available.

To reduce our long waiting time for a routine appointment, the Trust has made the decision to temporarily close to routine referrals.

This will enable us to review our capacity and make plans to provide appropriate capacity.

We continue to see all cancer, acute urgent cases of severe skin disease and paediatric referrals.

General Practitioners know how to continue referring patients in this way.

We are also working with colleagues in intermediate (community) care such that if cases are seen there they can then be referred to us for treatment, further advice etc.

We are working with our colleagues in other acute hospitals in Dorset, the CCG and also GP practices to review the Dermatology service across Dorset, to establish different ways of working together to improve the service for our patients.

We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused due to our waiting time for appointments.

If your GP is concerned that your lesion may be cancerous then they would be able to refer you via the two week fast track route.

Regards

Patient Engagement Team