"Disrespectful communication with..."

I received a follow-up out-patient appointment letter to see my Neuropsychologist, who is excellent, for an appointment in January 2018.

However, on the day of the appointment, a member of administrative staff telephoned me to cancel the appointment at short notice, stating that my Neuropsychologist was "away", giving no other reason or apology for the late cancellation.

I asked how I could make another appointment, and was told that I couldn't make one over the telephone but that one would be posted out to me

(which as I have a two year old child to arrange childcare for, and live quite a long distance from the hospital, could mean receiving an unsuitable appointment by this indirect method).

I received a letter a few days later, for an appointment over two months later for March 2018 which I was disappointed about as the hospital had cancelled the original appointment with no real explanation or apology.

Four days before this second appointment, I learnt that my relative who was going to look after my child was unable to now do so as she is an older person subject to occasional ill health, so I telephoned the neuropsychology department that same day to rebook the appointment.

I explained that my childcare arrangements had fallen through and the member of staff again stated that an appointment couldn't be made over the phone but that one would be sent out to me.

A few days later, I received an appointment letter for two months later in May 2018, five months after the original hospital-cancelled appointment, but worse than this was that a paragraph was highlighted in highlighter pen on the letter stating that patients who cancel at "unreasonable notice" or on "multiple" occasions, or who do not attend appointments will be discharged.

Not only is it an insulting and patronising way to communicate with patients coping with psychological distress caused by neurological illness, it does not apply to me because i have never done any of these things (and no member of staff had said to me that I had done so), but the hospital cancelled my original appointment at "unreasonable notice", and had moved my appointment four months on from its original date, and it fails to give patients an opportunity to make a suitable neuropsychology appointment by phone rather merely to receive an appointment by letter.

The clinical staff at this hospital are excellent but its administrative systems, culture, resourcing, and training leave much to be desired in terms of respect for patients and petient-focussed services.

I have not complained before but it is not the first time that I have experienced poor administrative service as a patient of this hospital despite its excellent clinical staff, they could learn a lot from my previous neurological hospital (Salford Royal) who I only moved from due to a house move.

They realise how important good administration is to patient experience of hospital services, and this enhances patient-centred clinical care.