"Systems failure"

My partner relies on the NHS heavily and in particular the Royal Free Hospital. Individual specialists here are wonderful and provide superb care and advice on a regular basis.

Less impressive is the ability of different departments to liaise successfully to create a fluent care package. Indeed, even within individual departments there is a lack of coherent system control, especially when dealing with anything unusual.

Our recent visit provides a typical example. Despite having received a confirmation letter and text follow up the receptionist couldn't find the appointment on the system. We were asked to wait; a nurse promptly took weight etc and we we're shown to the next waiting area. However because the receptionist hadn't been able log us in - or possibly even been trained to deal with such a situation - we sat outside the consultants room for forty minutes while she sat inside waiting for us! It took the intervention of a kind lady from a different department to rectify the mistake.

Forty minutes I hear you cry! A really short wait by NHS standards...... Yes, but we know the reality. Last week we waited eight hours for a consultant, pharmacy and the ward to sign off a treatment that would take six hours to administer. End result.....not enough time to complete and we we're sent home.

Our mistake is that we are respectful and patient. As a family member reminded us; the squeaky hinge gets the oil first. In future I will be very squeaky.......