"Obstetrics medical appointment"

Dear Waiting an eternity

I am sorry that you have been inconvenienced in this way and I appreciate just how frustrating it is waiting for an appointment beyond the expected time.

I can reassure you that we are planning large scale changes to improve Outpatient Clinic waiting times and I know that these cannot be done quickly enough for those that are directly affected.

I will discuss this at my meeting with our executive team today as a reminder about the inconvenience which is being caused to patients and their families.

Kind regards, Alan Lilly

Dear waiting an eternity

Again, I am really sorry about this and to see that you waited so long, as well as the interruption you experienced in your appointment. Please be reassured that we are genuinely trying to improve this and to reduce waiting times experienced by patients and their families. I did raise specifically the current feedback on clinic waiting times at our executive meeting this morning and sought confirmation on timelines for implementation of changes to our booking practices. I should add that none of this is easy as it's about completely changing the way we do things but I get that we need to do more, more quickly.

If you would be kind enough to provide some details for me, I would be more than happy to look into this more specifically and help ensure that we prevent a recurrence of your experience. You can email me directly at alan.lilly@easternhealth.org.au

I hope to hear from you and thank you for your patience and understanding.

Kind regards, Alan Lilly

Dear waiting for an eternity

By way of "closing the loop" on your feedback, I wanted to confirm that as per our exchange of emails, this has now been taken up with the Associate Director of the Women & Children program at Box Hill Hospital (Janet Horman).

Firstly, Janet is extremely apologetic about your experience and just so sorry to read about what happened when you visited the clinics recently. Janet reported to me that this is going to be followed-up as a priority with all clinic staff including reminders and about professionalism and etiquette. She is also going to discuss with the Service Manager some additional specific training with regard to customer service. Your story is a great reminder of what is important to patients and what our priorities need to be.

Again, I am very sorry about your experience but I hope you can be reassured that we are taking your feedback seriously and more importantly, doing something about this so that we can prevent a recurrence.

In the meantime, best wishes and thanks again for taking the time to get in touch.

Kind regards, Alan Lilly

Dear waiting for an eternity

Thank you so much again for providing feedback on your experience. I thought I would provide an update on the changes we introduced following your feedabck which I am pleased to say, 2 years on, have been sustained.

Along with customer service training, there has been extensive review of how the clinics operate and the role and function the clerical staff need to undertake. This has resulted in splitting of tasks so that there is always some-one focussed on the experience of women and their families including how long people are waiting.

There have been many other changes and we are in the cycle of continuous improvement to make the patient and staff experience even better.

Thank you again for your feedback.

Kind regards

David