Cancelled appointment. Is this common?

Teerah

Perhaps if the OP had rang ahead to notify the clinic that they were running late this might have been handled differently. Looking at it from the clinics point of view, the patient hasnt shown at their agreed apointment time or within 15-20 mins of it so they are assumed to be not coming since they havent contacted to say otherwise. The clinician involved may well have left early if there were no other patients to be seen or have started on other tasks such as paperwork which also need to be done. I can understand why the appointment was thus rearranged.

Backbiter

Teerah wrote:

Perhaps if the OP had rang ahead to notify the clinic that they were running late this might have been handled differently. Looking at it from the clinics point of view, the patient hasnt shown at their agreed apointment time or within 15-20 mins of it so they are assumed to be not coming since they havent contacted to say otherwise. The clinician involved may well have left early if there were no other patients to be seen or have started on other tasks such as paperwork which also need to be done. I can understand why the appointment was thus rearranged.

Had I known that my surgery considers an appointment as cancelled after 20 minutes I'd have rung ahead to notify them. I've honestly never experienced such a policy and nor has any family member. This isn't a whinge about the NHS, which has given my entire family all the care I could ever have wished for, and I'm genuinely proud of what it stands for and delivers.
I just wanted to know if what happened to me is common practice, as I felt I was not dealt with in an appropriate way. As I said in my first post, I deal with an appointments on a regular basis and have never turned anyone away for being 30 minutes late. I'd get a real talking to by my Head if I did so.

Mark7799

An interesting scenario.

My job operates on an appointment basis. I usually allocate 90 minutes per client although this can vary if I have advance warning of what is up for discussion. If someone turns up 30 minutes late then I will usually still operate the appointment but tell the client that they can only have a limited amount of time - why should I inconvenience another client because they weren't able to keep to their scheduled appointment time? Admittedly, where a medical process is involved, a curtailed session may not be possible (only speculating as I have absolutely no knowledge of the OP's circumstances).

Personally, I haven't had to suffer in surgery appointments in the way described above but was once about 20 minutes late due to traffic hold ups for an orthodontist appointment for my son to have braces fitted (about five years ago) and was told the appointment would be cancelled because there was not enough time left to complete the work before the next patient was due.

In fairness, I was immediately offered a fresh appointment for a week later,

Backbiter

Mark7799 wrote:

An interesting scenario.

My job operates on an appointment basis. I usually allocate 90 minutes per client although this can vary if I have advance warning of what is up for discussion. If someone turns up 30 minutes late then I will usually still operate the appointment but tell the client that they can only have a limited amount of time - why should I inconvenience another client because they weren't able to keep to their scheduled appointment time? Admittedly, where a medical process is involved, a curtailed session may not be possible (only speculating as I have absolutely no knowledge of the OP's circumstances).

Personally, I haven't had to suffer in surgery appointments in the way described above but was once about 20 minutes late due to traffic hold ups for an orthodontist appointment for my son to have braces fitted (about five years ago) and was told the appointment would be cancelled because there was not enough time left to complete the work before the next patient was due.

In fairness, I was immediately offered a fresh appointment for a week later,

I could not have argued - and would never have posted here - if I'd been dealt with that way.

Teerah

All I am saying is that there isnt really a cause to complain when all it would have taken was a quick phone call to keep the people waiting in the loop. Its just common courtesy in my opinion.

Savvy_Sue

The emptiness of the waiting room and car park have nothing to do with what needed to be done to you. Presumably one particular person was scheduled to treat you, and you don't know what their schedule for the rest of the day was. If their clinic was due to end before your treatment could be completed, it's not unreasonable not to start it. The room might have been needed by someone else shortly afterwards.

I agree that the inflexible appointment system is far from ideal, and you may want to pursue a complaint about that, but I don't think you can expect a universal indication that if you're more than x minutes late you won't be seen.

daveboy

It seems to me that the OP finds work more important than health and when the two cross over, the poor people in the NHS get shot at.

If people are not prepared to do the decent thing and inform someone they will be late, they get whatever is coming to them.

I try to avoid going to the doctors as much as possible because I always feel I'd be wasting their time. As it happens, I had to go during the week just gone. For a problem I've had for over a year and suffered with every day. I didn't go because I didn't want to waste the doctors time, or an appointment slot someone more in need could have.

In my opinion people who can't keep appointments should have their right to use the NHS withdrawn.

If the situation above is such a big matter, consider going private.

Whilst you appear not to, I have a great deal of respect for all those who work in the NHS, and that includes the receptionists too.

Sofa_Sogood

Backbiter? Hi ...

If your front tooth had suddenly fallen out and you had a meeting at work ... which would have the priority? Work or dentist?

I'm not always on the side of dentists btw, but I think if an appointment system was in place as strictly as it was in dentists etc, we'd all change our routines.

Having been left for hours for a doctor to see me, (in the past I should add), and a dentist ... the dentist won hands down. Because I had to pay, and pay a lot maybe??

I hope you're feeling better whatever the outcome But the NHS waiting lists do and does get peoples' backs up ... imho. And as much as I hate to say it ... money seems to talk nowadays ...

greenwich

OK, let's ease up on backbiter. She sounds like a nice, reasonable person who had a bad experience and gave vent here. I expect that having slept on it, she knows that she was far more to blame than the NHS. The wider point here is that people never really think about the cost of their NHS treatment. If someone had paid £100 to easyJet for a flight, they would make sure they get to the airport on time, even if it means having to miss a union meeting. But because people never think that NHS appointments - including missed ones - cost money, they don't care about missing them.

wobbley

greenwich wrote:

NHS staff are not our personal servants. They have a difficult job to do, trying to treat lots of people in too little time. QUOTE]

Oh yes they are !!! They are there to do a 'public service' and as such are paid by all of us who pay taxes and national insurance.

Compare the mostly badly managed and inefficient NHS establishments to the growing number of private hospitals and clinics. The NHS are forever 'bleating' about budgets and costs and staff cuts but if they were managed properly there wouldn't be a problem. Yes, most of the staff are dedicated and work hard, but it's the running of the places that lets them down. AND - nurses are not badly paid !!!

I'm sure the attitude of the reception staff the OP encountered was "sod him, if he's late". Even if they could have 'pushed' the appointment back, they have an image of understaffing and tight budgets to uphold.