'Choose and Book'

Cressers

So an update on 'My Little Problem'...

So how hard can it be to organise getting referred to the urology dept of your local hospital? The letter came through yesterday morning. I have the Patient Choice of four 'local' hospitals; the QA and St Mary's in Pompey (12 miles away), Petersfield community hospital (16 miles away) or St Riichard's Chichester (4 miles away). Of course living near Chichester I'm going to choose the most local to me so I rang for an appointment, I didn't have much choice because the online option, even if I wanted to use it, wasn't available yet, and was put through to a receptionist whose IT skills were inferior to mine! (and that takes some doing) As my mobile credit dwindled and she slowly thunked the keys she came up with the classic line "Oh, we've nothing available at the moment, that happens more often than you'd think. I'll set up another clinic session for you and we'll send you your appointment by post..." which was what I wanted anyway.

Why didn't they just do that to start with? With the option to change times or venues if it wan't convienient. How much money was wasted setting up this ridiculous 'choice' anyway when what we really want is just a local service? Maybe that is why there wern't any appointments available, they'd spent the money that should've been spent on patient care on this beaureacratic shambles

Another 'modernised' service that is worse than that it replaces. New f*****g Labour strike again.

fungus_the_muffin_man

While going local is the best service for you. Many others prefer to go to where the best surgeons are etc.... rather than where's nearest. It's one of the best things labour have done to reform the NHS

SteppenHerring

Er, Fungus, prior to earlier reforms, GPs could refer patients anywhere. That stopped with the pseudo-market system but then "choose and book" got implemented as an over-complicated IT thing. So C&B is a bad solution to a problem that ought not to have existed in the first place.

But then the pseudo-market thing (that the Tories started) is what allowed the Mid Staffs NHS trust to get "foundation status" by hitting all their financial targets and never mind about the dead patients.

Actually, it's a lovely sunny day - let's not get into that argument. Fungus: I had a nice ride a couple of weeks ago with a few of your L2P colleagues. Good luck with that ride - I'm jealous.

fungus_the_muffin_man

Really I honestly never knew that :oops:

I was always just told where i would go for treatment ( 80's an early 90's) I never realised there was a choice involved.

Unfortuantely for me I'm on nights at the moment so typically the weather is gorgeous while I lie in bed trying to sleep :roll:

Cool glad you had a good ride. So you've met my sidekick Yorkie then I take it , unless it's some of the other guys. In which case if it was a different ride you were lucky to miss the "dog" incident :shock:

Thanks for the good luck I feel like i'll need it with nights stopping me getting the miles in at the mo.


Sorry about the thread drift guys