"Telephone Appointment"

I was given an appointment via telephone with the Urology Clinic for a morning appointment recently. I was at work. I missed two calls from 08 6152 0000 within three minutes of each other at the time of my appointment due to being at work and not being able to answer. I called the 08 6152 0000 number back a few minutes later and listened to the voice recording which I feel is basically just fobb off and tells you to ring Outpatient Direct. I called Outpatient Direct a couple of minutes later and was told I had been "discharged" and my file closed and that they could not help me by putting me through to the Clinic. 

I have now received a letter from the FSH dated the day of my appointment telling me that my referral has been removed from the system and that I will need a new referral from my GP to access the Urology Clinic again.

How do I feel? Really annoyed and frustrated. It is simply beyond belief that within 9 mins of missing the first call I was unable to call the Clinic back and talk to the specialist, and that in 3 mins ie: the time of the first and second calls to me, my referral was removed. 

Based on my experience, this system is bad enough to deal with - phone calls cannot always be picked up no matter whether the appointment was scheduled and the fact I believe the specialist made a judgement call within three minutes to discharge me is absolutely ridiculous. 

In my opinion, Fiona Stanley Hospital must do better and in particular the staff of the Urology Clinic.