Care Opinion

Telephone appointment

Posted By Ardy96

"Telephone appointment"

About: Community Services - North Devon / Bladder & Bowel Care

(as the patient),

I recently had a telephone appointment  with the Bladder & Bowel clinic, Exeter. Appointments was scheduled for 10:15am, so I sat by my phone from 10:00 till 11:00 and the phone did not ring.

So I rang them at 11am and spoke to the receptionist, who told me the nurse had rung me twice during that time, and another appointment would be made for me.

I can verify that my phone was in working order, because I received several incoming calls after 11am, so I can offer no explanation as to why it did not ring when the nurse rang. However, I asked the receptionist if the nurse would ring me again on my mobile number and they said they rang me on the number that is on my file and refused my request.

The real insult came though when I had a copy of a letter sent to my Health Centre to say that I had failed to attend 2 telephone consultations and that my supply of incontinence pads would be suspended if I failed to attend my next appointment. Incontinence is hard to live with, without all this hassle piled on top.

I swear that this statement is the truth and nothing but the truth, and I shall feel most upset by this whole incident until I have had my next review. 

 

Staff attitude

Staff attitude


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Responses

Response from Ruth Scrivens, Clinical Lead Bladder and Bowel Care (Northern Services), Bladder and Bowel Care (Northern Services), Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Trust last week
Ruth Scrivens
Clinical Lead Bladder and Bowel Care (Northern Services), Bladder and Bowel Care (Northern Services),
Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Trust

Submitted on 19/07/2024 at 14:33
Published on Care Opinion at 14:39

Thank you for posting your feedback on Care Opinion regarding your recent telephone appointment with the Bladder and Bowel Care service. I'm sorry to hear that you did not receive the call at the arranged time. When you contacted the office, you were told that the nurse had tried to contact you twice, but had not received a response. Unfortunately she did not have time to call you back later on, due to her busy clinic schedule.

After this, you received a letter stating that you had failed to attend 2 telephone consultations and that your supply of incontinence pads would be suspended if you failed to attend your next appointment. I can understand that you found this distressing, especially after contacting the office to discuss the missed appointment.

I would like to investigate this matter further. If you would be happy to contact the office in the first instance, they will be able to check that we have your correct contact details, ensuring that your next telephone appointment runs smoothly.Our office number is 01392 208478 and email address is rduh.bladderandbowel@nhs.net. I have informed our admin manager that you may be in touch.

I have spoken to our administrative team and they have noted that the automatically generated letter for a missed appointment should have been stopped on this occasion, as you had already contacted the office. Unfortunately these letters are necessary because we have a lot of wasted clinic time due to missed appointments - but I appreciate that in this instance the letter was inappropriate. This was a genuine oversight for which I apologise.

Thanks once again for leaving your feedback.

Best wishes,

Ruth Scrivens, Clinical Lead.

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