"Communication between services"

My GP advised me to contact Six Degrees for therapy on how to deal with Chronic Pain when I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia.  I made an appointment with them to be seen at my GP surgery, 5 weeks later (Xmas holidays added to the delay).  When I turned up for my appointment, about 10 minutes early, I checked in with reception at the GP surgery and then waited in the reception area.  After 30 minutes of waiting I went back to the receptionist who rang through to the therapist - the therapist thought I had not turned up, as my arrival had not been passed on from the reception to the therapist.  It was then too late to be seen.

When I got home I rang Six Degrees again and was told I had to make a new appointment and there was another 3 week wait.  I was annoyed and frustrated at the additional wait through no fault of my own.

When I finally got to see a therapist he was kind and gave me a workbook on living with chronic pain which I found very helpful.  I have no complaints with the service provided by Six Degrees itself and I think it was good that this service can be provided at the GP surgery.

However it is important that the GP practice and the people from Six Degrees communicate well.  The message that I had arrived was also not passed on on a second occasion and luckily the therapist popped his head into the reception to double check, or otherwise I would again have been marked as missing an appointment.

The fault lies squarely with the Lakes Medical Centre in Swinton - either the staff or the computer system is at fault in not passing the arrival information onto the therapist.