"CHEC Proved a Major Disappointment"

I have previously left a review after my first clinical appointment which went very well and my operation was booked for the 14th of February. I was told to stay off my blood thinners on the day of the operation and turn up at 15:10.

I was a little nervous but looking forward to getting my eyelid operation and getting it back to normal.

When I turned up for the operation I was told that I'd be seen right away. I was seen quickly but to my surprise I was told that they couldn't do my operation on my eyelid as their theatre didn't have the necessary equipment and I'd have to be referred to a main hospital for my operation. This was a shock as I'd been seen a week before by a doctor who saw me in an room adjacent to the one that I was in and they were both right next to the operating theatre!

I had no option but to accept what was happening and went home after checking that they would make the referral.

A week or so later I received a letter asking me to book an appointment at CHEC. I rang them and they said that the letter was a mistake and they were having problems with their communications. They said that I should now contact my local NHS Referral Centre and gave me their number.

I rang the referral centre who told me that they had nothing on file for me since the middle of January i.e. before my visits to CHEC.

I rang CHEC again and after explaining what had happened my contact said that he could now see the problem - CHEC had sent my current file to their archive rather than forward it to the NHS Referral Centre. He promised he would fix this and send my referral off immediately.

I've now been contacted by the NHS and have a clinic appointment for July at Royal Preston Hospital.

CHEC really don't seem to know what they are doing. They don't seem to know what they can and cannot do within their clinic and their communications and patient recording systems are awful. My operation was effectively archived with my form and if I hadn't got another erroneous letter from CHEC and followed this up with them I'd never have had my operation progressed.

They seem to be a waste of our NHS funding!