"Money could have been wasted due to ambulances not being cancelled"

Thank you for taking the time to contact us through Patient Opinion. The answer to your question specifically is that in any appointment process the responsibility for avoiding any waste of valuable NHS resources may lie in a number of areas, depending on the circumstances. There may be many reasons why an appointment has to be cancelled but it is nearly always communication that fails between the healthcare establishment and the patient at some point in the process.

In view of this fact and as a result of successful trials within the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire areas Great Western Ambulance Service now operates two forms of communication with patients to try and avoid wasted journeys. This means that if all other communication breaks down then a safety net still exists to enable a rescheduling of ambulance journeys and avoid wasted costs. This is what you experienced when you were called by us on both occasions

We call every patient for whom we have contact details 48 hours before they are due to travel with us and we call this ‘Call to Confirm’. Our ambulance crews then give a courtesy call on the day of travel to give a more accurate estimated time of arrival and once again ensure that the person is travelling. We call this our ‘Crew-Call’.

It appears that this system worked well in your case irrespective of where the failure to cancel your appointment lay. Furthermore as we keep accurate records of the 950 or so journeys we undertake each day we will almost certainly have identified where within the appointment process the failure occurred and addressed this. Unfortunately when any patient doesn’t arrive in clinic (referred to as a DNA) there may be a cost in wasted clinic time but I am unable to comment on whether this was the case in this instance.

May I thank you once again for getting in touch with us through Patient Opinion and providing such valuable feedback on our new scheme.

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