"Getting Through To the Right Department"

I have tried for nearly a week to get through to the Dermatology Department at Furness General Hospital. I finally succeeded this morning. My son has monthly appointments at the Dermatology department for blood tests linked to his acne treatment. He last attended for an appointment towards the end of July and should have been going again in 10 days but had not received an appointment. He had been told he would receive an appointment by post.

Every time I rang the main hospital number I was put through to a phone which just rang and rang until the line finally went dead. I tried to find an email address. I got a reply to that email today to say I should take the matter up with my GP!

What would he have said? 'Ring the hospital' no doubt , how he could have solved the probelm I'm not sure.

So I tried again today and after a long time waiting for the phone to be answered, I managed to speak to someone. During the whole phone conversation the line was interrupted several times and I kept having to repeat what I had said. I think I finally got the message across and am hoping a message will be left on my answerphone at home with a date for the next appointment.

But should it be so difficult to get in touch with the right people to answer a query? Switchboard at the hospital seems very keen to get you transferred to somewhere withouth necessarily listening to your query first. It is quite frustrating.