Many of you will have had the unsatisfactory experience of waiting a long time for a hospital outpatient appointment, or for a follow up or to discuss test results. If you phone them, they often ask you to call us to “expedite” the appointment. We suspect that this is merely a tactic to get you off the phone.

We have been advised by our representatives that the responsibility in these matters lies solely with the hospital provider. It is up to them to provide patients with a service that is appropriate to their clinical need.

In any case, we are not aware that any of our correspondence makes the slightest difference. We could ask that every patient on a waiting list is given priority consideration, which, of course, would have no effect.

GP’s have been advised to no longer write such letters to hospitals.

The exception is if your condition changes while you are on a waiting list and a clinical urgency develops. We regret that this does not apply if such change is expected in the passage of time, for example worsening symptoms of arthritis when you are waiting for joint replacement surgery.

Advice from out of hours/NHS 111/urgent care/extended access/ private GP’s/A&E departments

If you have an appointment with one of these agencies they may refer you back to us. They do not always have the facilities to arrange investigations, treatment or referrals that they say you need.

The result is that you will need to seek our advice anyway. We will listen to your account of your symptoms, take notice of your past medical history and form our own opinion. We are not required to follow the instructions of any other practitioner.

Please allow us to take the lead on the follow up and management of referrals from other providers. Too often a patient calls for – and obtains – an appointment to discuss one of these contacts, only for the doctor to discover that there has been no correspondence from the other party, and the valuable appointment is wasted.