"Clinic cancelled whilst waiting to see consultant"

My husband had an appointment at The Machen Eye Unit on 23 February 2018. The appointment had been sent to him three months before. We turned up for the appointment ahead of time as advised in the appointment letter. Some tests were done prior to seeing the consultant and eye drops administered so that he could perform the laser treatment. We sat in the waiting area, along with about three other patients, for an hour and fifteen minutes waiting for the consultant to arrive. We thought it strange that there was no activity going on in his room. Eventually a member of staff came along to tell us that the clinic was cancelled because it had been wrongly arranged. Fortunately for us, we live in Leamington Spa but another gentleman who was to have been seen was with his son who had travelled from London especially to accompany his father (we had been advised that you had to have someone with you as you would not be able to drive after the treatment). Another lady waiting had been very nervous about having the treatment and would now have to ‘psyche herself up’ again. All my husband has to show for spending an hour and a half at the hospital is a headache caused by having the drops in the eyes! Apparently another appointment will be arranged.

We realise that having to cancel appointments from time to time is unavoidable but to have people travel to the hospital, have half the procedure carried out and then, after waiting over an hour, having the appointment cancelled is unacceptable.

We hope steps are taken to ensure this sort of thing does not happen again.

Whilst this is a negative review about the cancellation of the clinic, on a positive note the staff, as always at Warwick Hospital, were extremely friendly and helpful.