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Letter for appointment arrived after the appointment

Posted By gammakf45

"Letter for appointment arrived after the appointment"

About: Royal Perth Hospital

(as the patient),

I was referred by my GP to the Royal Perth Hospital for Orthopaedic Trauma team. I got an appointment very quickly. However, I did not know about it as the letter sent arrived after my appointment. Unfortunately, the mail from Perth to where I live (about 100km away) can sometimes take several days and I missed the appointment. Meanwhile I had organised to see a private orthopaedic specialist as I was unaware that I was given a high priority.

I believe Royal Perth Hospital needs to review how they contact country clients regarding their appointments. I am unsure why phone or SMS are not used to make appointments.

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Responses

Response from Lesley Bennett, Chief Executive, East Metropolitan Health Service 5 years ago
Lesley Bennett
Chief Executive,
East Metropolitan Health Service

Submitted on 11/03/2019 at 11:46 AM
Published on Care Opinion at 12:02 PM

picture of Lesley Bennett

Dear gammakf45,

Please accept my sincere apologies that you missed your appointment, this must have been very frustrating for you. Thank you for your feedback which has highlighted to us a potential gap in our processes. I have followed up with our team and the standard practice is for our clerks to confirm appointments by phone if they are made within 14 days of the appointment date, and also follow up with a letter and then text message 2 days prior to the appointment. Unfortunately, in some cases they are unable to reach a patient by phone and do not have a mobile number on record. I cannot comment on exactly what occurred with your appointment, but please accept my apology, this is not the level of service that we strive to provide.

Thank you again for your feedback and alerting us to this issue.

Kind regards

Dr Lesley Bennett

Executive Director

Royal Perth Bentley Group

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