Retinopathy shocking...

[donnellysdogs]

That is shocking, what a waste of your time and that of your colleagues, do these people just automatically get sent another letter to attend another appointment, if so what happens if they fail to turn up again?

The patient at our Northants hospital that had missed 7 appts was phoned 7 times to rearrange times....the person doing the screening actually phoning him!

The person at the Bucks hosp was put back to gp care after missing his 2 hospital screenings.

 

[pavlovsdog]

Meanwhile, someone like me, who never misses appointments is unable to get an appointment for eye screening, even though it is two months overdue. Also was on waiting list for two major operations for two years. If some of that time waiting is due to time wasters who have appointments they fail to attend then that makes me rather angry.

Sadly that is very true Pipp. Unfortunately waiting lists are dramatically affected by people not turning up for appointments. In addition, in our service, and I think this is true of most services, we still have to offer a second appointment to non attenders, followed by an opt in letter, which impacts even further on waiting lists.

 

[greyposter]

Really glad I went to my appointment yesterday.

 

[Minnie45]

I've been a T1 for 39 years and have always attended my screening appointments, we're fortunate in the UK to have such a great service and I value it. This year apparently the service in my area was extremely busy due to a large amount of newly diagnosed T2s (so I was told), I had to ring for my appointment which is something I've never had to do before, on arrival at the screening clinic over half of those who had appointments didn't show. I personally find it frustrating that those of us who value our sight and the screening service are being potentially delayed in getting our appointments due to the large number of patients being offered screening and not showing for appointments, in addition results were always issued within 2-3 weeks, this year it took nearly 5 weeks and I had to call the service to chase. I still very much value and appreciate the screening.

 

[donnellysdogs]

Just received a break down of missed appointments for November for our gp practice. Shocking...

37 hours missed appts for the nurses / healthcare assistant. 71/2 hours total for GP's in one month.

119 appointments in total missed.

That means that one of our nurses could effectively go part-time.... But then again when trying to get an appointment to see a nurse Patients always have to wait!!

I've sent these details out to our Patients Group members and getting a lot of responses back on ways to improve to discuss with the Practice Manager. I just wish that our Practice Patient Group could spend more time on raising health awareness than wasted appointments.

 

[Pollylocks]

I went for mine and they couldn't do it as I was not on the contractors system wasted my time and the person who took me.

You've mentioned twice that you've had problems with your clinic, Paula Carr Diabetes Trust, so you must be in Kent like me.

I'm sorry you've had problems with being seen but for the sake of others in this area who may be newly diagnosed, I just wanted to say that I've been seeing them annually for almost sixteen years and have honestly never had a problem with appointments with them.