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Forgetful outpatients

Posted By Furiously Speechless

"Forgetful outpatients"

About: Box Hill Hospital

(as the patient),

Having arrived at the outpatients for my appointment, I presented to the reception desk as per normal, watched the staff member get my file and went to sit down as they instructed.

Now, I'm no stranger to having to wait 30-40 minutes after my appointment time before I actually see anyone, but this time.... I was there for over an hour.

It wasn't until I was one of two people waiting that someone came over and asked if I was waiting to be seen. Their response?

"We didn't think you'd turned up".

It was still another 15 minutes before they actually had someone come down to see me.

Now, my advice to anyone waiting in outpatients... don't be patient. I know I won't be the next time I have to wait.

For the record: I will be following this up if I don't hear anything, in person if necessary. The first lot of feedback I left with Eastern Health was blatantly ignored, I will not put up with the same treatment.

I have absolutely no faith in Eastern Health and each interaction only cements that opinion.

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Responses

Response from Alan Lilly, Chief Executive, Eastern Health 8 years ago
Alan Lilly
Chief Executive,
Eastern Health

Submitted on 7/09/2015 at 1:32 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 1:35 PM

picture of Alan Lilly

Dear Furiously Speechless

Thank you for sharing your story on Patient Opinion and firstly, please accept my sincere apologies with regard to your recent experience with our Outpatient Clinic. I realise that patients are very busy people too and I am sorry that we wasted so much of your time whilst we did not realise that you had arrived (when in fact you had).

It's fair to say that we have also been wanting to improve our Outpatient Clinics and we are currently looking at ways to reduce waiting times at the clinic itself, as well as making it a much more comfortable wait too. However, I realise that this doesn't help you right now and I am really sorry that you were inconvenienced.

I will alert Marie Wintle (the Outpatient Clinic manager) of your story straight away and ask her to discuss this with staff as a reminder of the importance of communication between each other and back to patients waiting in a timely manner.

I am committed to using this information to improve our patient experience and receiving timely feedback like this is very helpful.

You also mentioned that you had previously provided feedback and that was ignored and I would be keen to know more about that. If you would like to do so, please email me directly at alan.lilly@easternhealth.org.au and I can follow-up further for you.

In the meantime, once again, please accept my sincere apologies for your experience and I do hope that you are reassured that we are taking your feedback seriously.

Kind regards, Alan Lilly

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