Appointments system is a mess

2:06pm Wednesday 16th July 2008

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I cannot let your article regarding patients who fail to turn up for medical appointments (‘Time wasters’, Times Series, July 3) pass without comment.

My partner was recently referred to Barnet Hospital for urgent treatment. The letter summoning him for an appointment on May 7 at 8.45am, although dated May 2, was not posted until May 6 and arrived too late for him to keep the appointment.

No doubt because of this, he will be counted in the statistics as one of the patients who fail to turn up.

When he rang to arrange a replacement appointment, he was told by staff that Barnet's appointments system was a mess and needed to be sorted out.

Following surgery at Chase Farm hospital, he received written confirmation of a follow-up appointment at Barnet Hospital on June 23. When we arrived at the hospital, we were told he was supposed to be at Edgware Hospital. The embarrassed staff said that the mistake had occurred because the computer allows appointments to be confirmed at the wrong hospital.

When we finally arrived — inevitably late — at Edgware Hospital, the clinic nurse commented that patients were being sent to the wrong hospital several times a week.

Some of the blame for missed appointments therefore clearly lies with Barnet and Chase Farm Hospital’s chaotic appointments system. Our own experience suggests there is a great deal of complacency about these problems.

Beverley Perkins, Nether Street, Finchley