Urgent Hopsital Referral Delayed - hospital at fault

[msemma]

My GP put an urgent referral through for me to a specialist clinic, it was a two week urgent referral, meaning I should be seen within 2 weeks. Due to errors on the administrative side of the referral at the hospital, my phone number being deleted and mail not sent to arrive on time, I was not notified of my apointment which was a week after the referral was sent. I have now missed this appointment and only by contacting the referral clinic myself have I received a new date for my apointment. This is quite a serious referral and the new date has been brought forward by two days. I will however now not be seen within the two week urgent referral time limit. I have written a letter of complaint to the hospital complaints co-ordinator which I am sending today. Is Is there any further way I can push this? My GP was off yesterday when I discovered all of this, but my surgery receptionist is recording everything that has gone on. I am thinking of going to see my GP on Monday. to see if they can push it any further but I have been told by the clinic that there are no available apointment slots before my new appointment date. Can I be seen in another borough's hospital / go private at the PCT's expense in this situation if a sooner appointment is available. The referral is to a breast clinic and I have a history of breast cancer in my family.

[divegirl]

Hi, how long do you have to wait?

[msemma]

Had I been told of my initial appointment it would have been one week from the date of seeing my GP. It will now be two weeks an 4 days from seeing my GP. So from today I have a wait of 9 days.

[bednobs]

surely the point of a "2 week appointment" is that you are seen in 2 weeks, not 1 week?

[msemma]

bednobs, I am not asking to be seen within a week. I should have been seen within two weeks, which I will not be due to the hospitals error.

[Oneeyedvic]

You say I was not notified of my apointment which was a week after the referral was sent. - is not conceivable that they sent you details of the appointment but Royal Mail lost it?

On the basis that you now have only* 9 days to wait, I doubt that you would be able to change hospitals / go private. Also, bear in mind that the NHS is hugely overstretched. If they have no other appointments available, by getting a quicker one then someone else will be in exactly the same situation as you - by getting them to pay privately, then you are putting them in possible debt - which of course has further repercussions.



*I know that I use the word 'only '- I do know that this is a horrendous waiting period for you and don't mean to demean what must be a frightening time for you.

[msemma]

The appointment letter arrived yesterday, two days after I should have gone for the appointment! It was sent by a different courierto Royal Mail but arrived at the same time as a letter sent via Royal Mail by the hospital first class on Friday. Also now missing, which has been sent by the courier service is a letter telling me that I had a new appointment which was sent first class on Thursday. So at present it seems the hospital is using a mail courier that is not up to speed. Also it is the requored practice for the hospital to contact the referral patient by telephone for this kind of appointment, and they did not because they lost or rather didn't transfer my phone number and did not bother to contact my doctor's surgery or thier initial receiving centre to get it.

What really annoys me is that there was a slot for a NHS patient to find out last week whether ot not they had breast cancer. Overstretched they may be, but the cost of telephoning my doctors surgery to get my phone number compared to a missed investigation appointment is part of what is annoying me. The fact that it could happen again to someone else unless I kick up a fuss is really bothering me.

I have told the hospital that should another patient not turn up I would get a taxi straight to the hospital and take up that slot, at my own expense, regardless of where I might be.