"Urgent review required and no one to make booking"

I was discharged with my child from the hospital recently and was told by the Doctor that I would be contacted by the specialist centre for an appointment on a Wednesday as my child required urgent follow-up.

On the following Tuesday, I contacted the specialist centre twice and left messages both times requesting a call back. I was not contacted until the next day (when we were meant to be having our review). When I spoke to this person I was told that the person who does the paediatric bookings is away until next week and I would have to wait until they were back. I did not think this was good enough as my request was marked as urgent and the doctor said we would be having weekly follow-up. I have been given an appointment for this week now, but only after having to push the importance of needing an appointment this week.

I believe there should be someone able to review requests and their urgency and always someone available to book in a referral, it shouldn’t matter who you are seeing for a referral to be booked. It concerns me that an urgent referral has to wait potentially over a week if I didn’t follow the appointment myself.