| 13,000 NHS letters sent to old or wrong addresses Maybe I have the answer why 15:51 - Apr 17 with 3051 views | BarrySwan |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-52283236
Twice now in recent years the Welsh NHS have sent appointment letters to old addresses of mine despite being supplied with my correct current address by my GP referring me for a consultant appointment. This resulted in me patiently waiting two years once for an appointment only to discover when enquiring what was happening that the NHS had removed me from the waiting list for 'Failing to turn up for an appointment'
So there I was waiting more than patiently I'm sure that you will agree, for two years for an appointment on a list that I wasn't even on. I played hell at that time as you can imagine even having a meeting with three senior managers at Llandough hospital in Penarth who apologised profusely and were unable to give a reason as to why this happened.
Due to this as I was convinced that this wouldn't be an isolated case over the years I have advised all and sundry to check that they were on the waiting lists that they thought they were and several have come back to me having discovered exactly the same thing that they had been struck off waiting lists for not turning up to appointments that they knew nothing about because the appointment letters had been sent to old addresses despite current addresses being supplied by their GPs to the Welsh NHS.
To add insult to injury we then have to regularly witness Welsh government idiots and senior Health service managers pop up in the media whining about patients not bothering to turn up for appointments and wasting scant resources when in fact we have no idea how many missed appointments are purely down the Welsh NHS administrative incompetence actually wasting those scant resources.
To cap it all the same thing happened to me yet again not long before the lockdown an appointment letter turned up at an address that I briefly lived at 10 years ago and it only reached me because the present occupant knew me and got in touch.
After requesting a meeting with senior managers at the Heath Hospital in Cardiff they revealed that their IT systems were so inadequate that even though they received current address details from GPs, if old addresses had been left on the system then the Welsh IT system automatically overrides the current address that is punched in on receipt of the GPs referral and sends out appointments to patients old addresses ( I have this in writing and on the CD copy of the transcript of the meeting supplied to me)
To compound the problem, the system initially sends out the confirmation of receipt of GP referral to the correct current address just to lull patients into a false sense of security that their address details are held correctly but the duff IT system bizarrely then overrides that address when the appointment letter gets sent out so it wouldn't even do you any good to check that they have the correct address details because they would confirm that they had and the system would then eventually override those details at the appointment letter stage.
Obviously this doesn't happen in every case buts evidenced by my own experiences and those people who I know and mention above that have taken my advice to check if they are still on a waiting list and found out that they have been removed also in similar circumstances then I have always known / suspected that there is a major fault with the Welsh NHS administrative appointments system but obviously have also never known the full extent of the problem.
The alarming bit is that the managers at the meeting I attended who had identified the IT problem when I requested that they immediately demand that the IT department sort the 'Glitch' out meekly response with 'it doesn't really work like that but we will ask them to have a look at it.
Ask them! Ask them! I would have thought that they should already have been in the IT office raging at the IT manager demanding that its sorted out on the spot. But my impression was very much Ce La Vie so I don't expect anything has changed.
If this has happened to me twice in recent years and others that I know, how big exactly is this problem and how many people are missing appointments that they knew nothing about, having their medical details shared with unsuspecting householders living in these patients old addresses and how many people are patiently waiting for appointments with consultants but have actually been removed from those lists without their knowledge?
So the lists given by the Welsh NHS to Local Authorities who are administering the vulnerable peoples lists may well wrong and full of inaccuracies through no fault of the individuals expecting to be on them.
Btw when inquiring about the latest foul up in my case the administrative staff initially tried to blame me for moving and not updating my address after referral. I had to point out that I hadn't moved in years.
[Post edited 17 Apr 2020 16:24]
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| 13,000 NHS letters sent to old or wrong addresses Maybe I have the answer why on 22:18 - Apr 17 with 2961 views | Catullus |
Last year I had 2 letters cancelling appointments I didn't know I had. I phoned up to ask what was happening on both occassions but never got satisfaction, I felt fobbed off with a kind of don't worry, it was cancelled anyway attitude.
Thing is, if you don't get an appointment letter and don't turn up, they don't believe you didn't get the letter and they use 2 different systems. Some letters ask you to ring up and confirm while others say unless you ring within 2 weeks of the date of the letter they assume it's ok.
If you don't ring they take you off the lists and if you don't turn up they put you down as DNA. Either way they don't contact you to tell you and also either way, if you don't get the letter you are still in the wrong.
Of course we get text reminders now but still, the IT system needs sorting out. | |
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