"Hand Clinic phones"

I went to the Hand Clinic recently, I had a fall and a fracture. I was supposed to come back the following week but I couldn’t make it. I was ringing for about five days, every day, saying I’d like to make an appointment, and no one was answering. When you ring the hand clinic, the voicemail says no one can answer but leave a message and we’ll ring you back. So I was calling for five days and no one had been picking up the phone, no one had been ringing me back.

I left a fifth voicemail that was a bit short because I was angry and then five minutes later, a staff member rang me, and it was quite difficult. Everything I said, they were getting wrong—the name, etc—and I had to repeat it. They kept saying they couldn’t understand me and everything I said, they’d repeat it back to me wrong. And I just thought, they're not very enthusiastic.

Then one hour later they rang again, and forgot they’d already talked to me. The same staff member rang and said they were just calling from the hand clinic, and I said, you just spoke to me an hour ago.

I’ve got an appointment now, but I thought it was very unprofessional and very frustrating. Why does it take five days to pick up the phone? I went there, there were three people there—and even then, surely you can answer the phone or call back.

It was very frustrating because in the voicemail they say they will call you back. I think if they didn’t say this then it wouldn’t be as frustrating.

They say, “We are busy now, leave your name and number.” They need to monitor how many calls are coming in to see if they need more staff. If they’re short-staffed I understand in which case you should speak to your supervisor and let them know you cant call people back, but if you’re not short-staffed, I feel you should do your job.

The hand clinic is lovely, I’ve never had a problem there. When I spoke to the doctors and nurses about it they said they have had many complaints about the Hand Clinic’s phones too. So I wanted to say something.