Hospital appointments policy...

Nekarsulm · 26-06-2015 12:19am #1

Two months ago got an appointment for the Eye Clinic in the Mater Hospital.
Appointment was for yesterday at 2pm.
On Tuesday received a letter telling me that the appointment was cancelled, and rescheduled for the middle of August.
Tried ringing the number provided to question the change, but phone calls are not taken after 3pm. Our post isn't delivered until 3.15 daily.

Had already arranged day off work, child pick-up from school etc, so decided to attend anyway. Two hour drive and got to the clinic at 1.15.
Handed in my original appointment letter, expecting to be told that my visit was cancelled, but no. Given a number and told to wait.
Had the consultation etc. and there was no mention by anyone about the changed appointment.

So who is responsible for the late change?
How do they decide who will be bumped down the list?
What kind of computer system is in use, that didn't pick up on the fact that the appointment date was changed?
When I don't show up in august, will I join the long list of "no shows"?
(according to a notice board in the Mater 16,600 people failed to show up for appointments in 2012)
Is this practice designed to massage waiting list statistics somehow?

26-06-2015 12:23am

Nekarsulm wrote: »

Two months ago got an appointment for the Eye Clinic in the Mater Hospital.
Appointment was for yesterday at 2pm.
On Tuesday received a letter telling me that the appointment was cancelled, and rescheduled for the middle of August.
Tried ringing the number provided to question the change, but phone calls are not taken after 3pm. Our post isn't delivered until 3.15 daily.

Had already arranged day off work, child pick-up from school etc, so decided to attend anyway. Two hour drive and got to the clinic at 1.15.
Handed in my original appointment letter, expecting to be told that my visit was cancelled, but no. Given a number and told to wait.
Had the consultation etc. and there was no mention by anyone about the changed appointment.

So who is responsible for the late change?
How do they decide who will be bumped down the list?
What kind of computer system is in use, that didn't pick up on the fact that the appointment date was changed?
When I don't show up in august, will I join the long list of "no shows"?
(according to a notice board in the Mater 16,600 people failed to show up for appointments in 2012)
Is this practice designed to massage waiting list statistics somehow?

You received a letter on Tuesday telling you that your appointment was cancelled, yet you still went for your appointment yesterday.

What exactly were you expecting to happen?

evolving_doors · 26-06-2015 12:27am

Could you go on the rescheduled date to see if they give you a different diagnosis?:pac::pac::pac:

But ya, I think it's all a figure massaging exercise. Loads of letters sent out for times within the year proving that 'waiting times are down'... then cancellations all over the shop hoping that a lot of people will forget, put it off till next year... or just give up and die.

kneemos · 26-06-2015 12:33am

My GP made an appointment for some physio,a year later got a letter asking did I still need it,wrote back telling them no,got two more of the same letters,wrote back twice,no grand
Six or eight months later in with the GP and he had received a letter asking if I still needed the appointment.
Wept.Can only imagine somebody can't be bothered and throws stuff in the bin or something.

uch · 26-06-2015 12:36am

Ring them, call them all Bastrads and see how you get on from there

Menas · 26-06-2015 8:53am

I had troubles with my eyes a few years ago...needed to see a specialist. Optician gave me two options. Go public with the Mater or private.
I decided to go public and the optician sent off the necessary paper work....

A few days later I said 'fcuk it- its my eye sight, I will just pay whatever to get it seen to'...

So within a week I was seeing some fella in the blackrock clinic who had me diagnosed and medicated within 30 mins (a very expensive 30 mins). Had a follow up a month later, and despite still taking daily capsules all is well.

I still have not heard back from the Mater about my referral....3 years later.

MrWalsh · 26-06-2015 8:55am

Why didnt you mention the changed appointment to them?

whiteramekin · 26-06-2015 8:55am

ive been trying to contact a unit in st james for the past 3 weeks, even left a message with the secretary of my consultant... no reply back

even the main hospital reception desk couldn't connect me to the place I need. ****'s weird

Nekarsulm · 26-06-2015 9:39am

MrWalsh wrote: »

Why didnt you mention the changed appointm appointmentent to them?

Wasn't saying anything till I was seen by the specialist.
Why would I willingly get myself bumped down the waiting list?
Giving the stories you hear about waiting lists , I had been happy with the eight weeks.
By the time I had been examined, the counter staff were long gone.

MrWalsh · 26-06-2015 9:41am

Nekarsulm wrote: »

Wasn't saying anything till I was seen by the specialist.
Why would I willingly get myself bumped down the waiting list?
Giving the stories you hear about waiting lists , I had been happy with the eight weeks.
By the time I had been examined, the counter staff were long gone.

I meant afterwards.

I can only assume that they tried to reschedule a number of appointments at a late date but saw whoever showed because if the post was a bit slow you wouldnt have gotten the letter in time.

Penny Tration · 26-06-2015 9:48am

Menas wrote: »

I had troubles with my eyes a few years ago...needed to see a specialist. Optician gave me two options. Go public with the Mater or private.
I decided to go public and the optician sent off the necessary paper work....

A few days later I said 'fcuk it- its my eye sight, I will just pay whatever to get it seen to'...

So within a week I was seeing some fella in the blackrock clinic who had me diagnosed and medicated within 30 mins (a very expensive 30 mins). Had a follow up a month later, and despite still taking daily capsules all is well.

I still have not heard back from the Mater about my referral....3 years later.

I was referred to a cardiologist by my GP because of a minor heart issue, when I was 19. I'm now 26, three letters of referral have been sent and still no appointment or even an acknowledgment of receiving the referrals :pac:

Nekarsulm · 26-06-2015 10:05am

MrWalsh wrote: »

I meant afterwards.

I can only assume that they tried to reschedule a number of appointments at a late date but saw whoever showed because if the post was a bit slow you wouldnt have gotten the letter in time.

Because it was five pm when I was examined, admissions staff in eye department only deal with public from 10 till 1, and 2 till 3.
The admission staff at the three counters in the Eye Dept. left at four.
No point asking the overworked nurses, they hardly know the ins and outs of the appointment diary.

horse7 · 31-08-2016 2:51pm

I have being ringing the eye department for 2 days now. From 9am it's an engaged tone. Had an appointment for July which they cancelled,and the new one for September has just been cancelled.

deisemum · 31-08-2016 3:38pm

The hospital appointment system needs to be overhauled. Over 50% of the time that I've received hospital appointments for someone in my family they've arrived after the appointment time and friends have said similar has happened with them. Appointments should be sent out sooner so people get them on time and to allow for the time the letters are often left sitting in the hospital post room for a few days before they're actually posted.

That sort of nonsense distorts how many patients fail to turn up for appointments.

Another time I took my son for his 2pm appointment, I arrived early and was the first there, two other people also had 2pm appointments and we waited until the person we were seeing arrived back from lunch at 2.20pm, the other two people were called in before my son but I had to leave at 3pm so my son didn't get his appointment. He got a letter a few months later with a new appointment and the person he was to see started on about him not showing up at his last appointment but soon backed down when I pointed out that he had but she didn't turn up until 2.20pm and we had to leave by 3pm. That added to the distorted failed to turn up for appointments list.

I'm 19 months waiting for surgery yet when it was decided on surgery I was told the waiting list was 12 - 18 months, this was after already waiting a year for the referral and tests. A couple of weeks ago it took me 4 days of ringing the consultant's secretary throughout the day before I got through to her and I've been told it will be at least another 6+ months if not longer before I can have the surgery. On the National Treatment Purchase Fund website there are only 13 people on the list for my type of surgery that are waiting over 18 months. I'm now considering requesting having my surgery under the NTPF scheme and be seen in a private hospital but paid for by the HSE but it would be a different consultant.

31-08-2016 4:34pm

The eye unit there is bedlam. I was told before that the appointment times are sent to people to try to maintain a steady stream of people through the unit throughout the day, rather than have everyone rush in first thing, or last thing. Usually a midday appointment would be seen about 4-5pm. Great team, very thorough and good treatment, but a whole day affair for a five minute appointment.

B.A._Baracus · 31-08-2016 4:37pm

horse7 wrote: »

I have being ringing the eye department for 2 days now. From 9am it's an engaged tone. Had an appointment for July which they cancelled,and the new one for September has just been cancelled.

Sheesh that's annoying.
Hate the way places don't pick up their phones. Could be wrong on this but I think it's the whole 'work to rule' thing that happened in the public service a few years ago. People wouldn't answer phones and it just stuck.
I remember needing to ring the social welfare a while back.... Constantly rang all day with no one picking it up. Just the norm these days. Sucks.

horse7 · 01-09-2016 6:58am

It's a lot more serious than annoying when you have a retina torn retina and get shingles in your eye.

JustTheOne · 01-09-2016 7:16am

16,600 people failed to show up for appointments.

And people blame the government on the health service.

We're a nation of self centred arseholes.

A simple phone call would help other people who are in need get seen quicker.

Arseholes.

SuperS54 · 01-09-2016 7:23am

I've been considering a move back to Ireland but threads like these put me off the idea...I'm in Taiwan, if I want to make an appointment with any specialist in any hospital I can go online, pick a day, pick a doctor (resumes are on the website) and get a number. The website advises approximately what time my number will be seen. The hospital I usually go to has an App so I can sit at home and watch what number is being seen, when it's close to mine I go to the hospital. Any extra tests are usually done on the day, need an ultrasound/x-ray/MRI....just go and get it done there and then and back to the doc's office for the results. My son had an issue last year, we seen the specialist on a Saturday morning, he had his non-urgent operation on Monday morning. This is on the equivalent of PRSI, not private medicine. There's a co-payment which worked out to be somewhere around 20 Euro for my sons operation. Hospitals are a business here that compete with other hospitals, not happy with the appointment system, no body answered the phone? Bring your business elsewhere. The system is far from perfect and a lot of the doctors leave a lot to be desired however when you have an issue that needs to be checked or fixed, it gets done, no waiting around until you die and fall off the waiting list...It's hard to consider moving back to Ireland with two small kids with the horror stories of waiting lists being so common.

JustTheOne · 01-09-2016 7:27am

SuperS54 wrote: »

I've been considering a move back to Ireland but threads like these put me off the idea...I'm in Taiwan, if I want to make an appointment with any specialist in any hospital I can go online, pick a day, pick a doctor (resumes are on the website) and get a number. The website advises approximately what time my number will be seen. The hospital I usually go to has an App so I can sit at home and watch what number is being seen, when it's close to mine I go to the hospital. Any extra tests are usually done on the day, need an ultrasound/x-ray/MRI....just go and get it done there and then and back to the doc's office for the results. My son had an issue last year, we seen the specialist on a Saturday morning, he had his non-urgent operation on Monday morning. This is on the equivalent of PRSI, not private medicine. There's a co-payment which worked out to be somewhere around 20 Euro for my sons operation. Hospitals are a business here that compete with other hospitals, not happy with the appointment system, no body answered the phone? Bring your business elsewhere. The system is far from perfect and a lot of the doctors leave a lot to be desired however when you have an issue that needs to be checked or fixed, it gets done, no waiting around until you die and fall off the waiting list...It's hard to consider moving back to Ireland with two small kids with the horror stories of waiting lists being so common.

Ask some people to pay even 20 euro here?

There would be marches on the streets.

Noone wants to pay for anything in this country anymore.

Capt'n Midnight · 03-09-2016 1:35pm

Reminded me of

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/02/24/21/3186EA6600000578-3461795-image-a-3_1456350215773.jpg

Hospital appointments policy...

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