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Urology outpatients clinic

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"Urology outpatients clinic"

About: Leicester General Hospital

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My issue is with the service is the frequent cancellation of outpatient appointments for the urology clinic. I have had many appointments cancelled and rescheduled nearly every time I am due a visit which when I was at university wasn't much if a problem to attend however now I work and do shift work this has become a real incovienience. I am meant to have yearly check ups but this is often stretched to 18 months which is appalling. For example, I was due to have an appointment in feb, which has since been moved to a date in march and today I have received a further letter to advise me this has again changed to June.

Staff have often commented at the clinic that it is always fully booked and even overbooked and waiting 1 hour plus is not unusual and I have been attending this clinic for 6 years. Why has nothing been done about the clinic, it quite clearly needs a longer clinic, more consultants or specialist registrars at the clinic to avoid this. New referrals always see the main consultant so those that have long term conditions are pushed to see a different doctor every time which doesn't help rapport nor confidence when the doctor has little experience in my complex condition.

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Responses

Response from Leicester General Hospital 11 years ago
Leicester General Hospital

Submitted on 12/02/2013 at 13:02
Published on nhs.uk on 13/02/2013 at 04:17

Firstly, we would like to thank you to for raising these concern as it allows us to continually assess and improve the services at our hospitals. The Urology Department is embarking on a project to improve the outpatient experience for its patients. The first stage is to review the clinic templates to ensure they reflect the medical cover and capacity demands. This will ensure that patients are not subject to routine delays and they are reviewed by appropriate clinicians.

There are a number of interventions we have put in place to encourage timely running of clinics:

- Additional clinic co-ordinators to ensure notes are prepared and available for the clinicians

- Review of booking in procedures

- Text reminders to patients to ensure outpatient clinics are utilised fully

- Strict start times for clinicians

- Adherence to UHL guidelines on requesting annual leave to ensure clinics are cancelled before booking of any patients

- Clinical nurse specialist clinics to be established

There are a finite amount of clinics and clinic space is limited to this. Clinicians are reminded to ensure patients reviewed in tertiary clinics cannot be reviewed by alternative providers. Additionally, we are seeking patient experience and feedback to ensure changes are within patient expectations.

I hope you can see from the above, we are doing our best to improve the service.

Thank you

Additionally, we are seeking patient experience and feedback to ensure changes are within patient expectations.

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