Tag Archives: appointment system

The New and Improved NHS System

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A Discussion on New Technology

I just had to cancel a blood test appointment. It was my fault as I’m trying to carry details of too many things in my head at one time. They rang me in the evening while I was snoozing, woke me, gave me results, arranged a new test date and then left me to wake up. It wasn’t until later that my brain oozed into action and I realised I’d just agreed to an appointment I couldn’t attend. They have a new system at the GP where you use a new internet system to book appointments. The only problem is that amongst all the NHS clutter of various systems and apps I can’t find it. I think I did eventually find the right link but there may be a delay in conforming my ID and when I do get signed up I may have to wait two working days for action. As the appointment is on Wednesday I can’t wait two working days.

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In the end I rang to talk to a receptionist. After all, with this new system all the phone lines will be free won’t they? Ha ha. I was, at 8.58, number 16 in the queue. So much for that. So I went on the old online system and cancelled the appointment. I can’t book a new appointment online as there are none for three weeks, but if I ring up for an INR test they will fit me in next week. They don’t seem to have accounted for INR tests with the online system. I mean, why would you? If you are spending millions on software you wouldn’t bother getting it right, would you?

I’m getting the idea that our old friend, the “New and Improved” system is back and, as usual, only one of the two things. As this one isn’t “Improved” it must merely (as so often) be “New”.

Has anybody else tried it? If you have, can you tell me how it is an improvement on “the app”, which I never used, and how this was an improvement on the SystmOnline set-up, which I still use (despite the trendy mis-spelling). And, of course, is any of this expensive technology an improvement on ringing and speaking to a receptionist?

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I thought I’d finish on a cat to calm myself down . . .

A Tricky Conversation

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I’m in a position where I have so much to write about that I’m getting jammed.

That’s a good start. I had a letter on Monday night when I got home. I recognised it as an NHS letter and my heart sank. More nanny-state, bureaucratic nonsense, I thought. I’ve only just done the AAA Screening and have nothing else due. What do they want now?

It seems they want me for Lung Cancer Screening.

In a letter dated last Wednesday and delivered on Monday, they gave me a date for a screening appointment – Tuesday. That’s right, less than 24 hours notice. I wonder which management guru has just been paid a fortune to come up with this strategy.

Theoretically it probably stops people changing appointments, but in practical terms it’s a nightmare. Fortunately it was a phone appointment so I could let it go ahead, but it wasn’t very convenient.

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For instance, I work in a shop with two other people, is that a good environment for discussing medical matters, some of which are better kept confidential? And I work in a shop with a lot of valuable, shiny items, do I want to give out my home address if we have members of the public in the shop? The answer in both cases is, of course, no.

I would rather have done it on Wednesday when I’m not at work. Or before 8.00 or after 4.00, but this is the NHS we’re talking about. Apart from the nurses and ambulance drivers most of them don’t work out of office hours.  If I was organising this sort of thing I would certainly be looking at the practicality of contacting people in the evenings. At flu time our local surgery is happy to work on Saturdays – because they know this is a good time to gather large numbers together.

It all went as expected. I answered questions, some of which had nothing to do with the health of my lungs, and, because I used to smoke heavily, I was told, in the manner of a TV host delivering news of a prize, that I had won a second screening appointment and would be allowed to answer more questions at an inconvenient location in order to decide if I was to be given the star prize of a trip in a CT Scanner.

What annoys me is that they have all the information they need on my smoking habits and my family cancer history because of my previous biopsies. They don’t need to ring up and bother me with all this malarky.

Ah well, another day, another NHS story . . .

I feel more like I’m being pursued rather than cured.

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