"why spend money on postage when I could be handed the letter?"

Thank you for using Patient Opinion to ask this question about arrangements for appointment letters and related postage costs. I will pass your question to the relevant staff and post the answer for you later this week. I am sorry for the short delay in posting a response to your comment - we are in the process of reviewing our internal arrangements for responses posted through Patient Opinion to make sure that all comments receive timely feedback.

Thank you again for taking the time to comment,

Best wishes,

Craig

I am sorry that I have not been able to post the response I promised within the timescale that I had committed to. I have not received the information that I need to do this. I will follow this up as a matter of priority.

Best wishes

Craig White

Assistant Director

I am pleased to be able to provide information from our Department of Information and Clinical Support Sevices.

As part of the Transforming Outpatients Programme, we are currently reviewing our approach to arranging appointments at Outpatient (OP) Clinics.

Our preferred approach is not to book appointments at reception desk following visit to OP clinic as these appointments are often for a date in the future (e.g. 6 months, 12 months) and can be subject to change (due to things like clinician on-call commitments, annual leave that is booked). This can sometimes result in an increased chance that people will not attend as they have forgotten or misplaced the appointment details.

We are also actively exploring the use of email and text for communicating appointments as part of the process of continously improving the way this is managed.

Thank you again for taking the time to contribute your comments,

Craig White

Assistant Director