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Lack of Service from Outpatient Clinic

Posted By tangoec57

"Lack of Service from Outpatient Clinic"

About: Fiona Stanley Hospital / Antenatal Clinic, Birth Suite, Maternal Fetal Assessment Unit, Obstetrics and Gynaecology Unit, Wards 3B, 3C, 3D, 3DO, Visiting Midwife Service

(as the patient),

I have tried several times over the last month to ring Gynaecology Outpatients to get them to change an appointment for an Ultra Sound to another Hospital closer to my home. I get put through to the Outpatients Call Centre who are always too busy to answer the phone for at least 10 minutes, then they just put you through to the extension which is never picked up. I then have to ring back and go through the whole procedure again to get to the call centre and ask them to send the Clinic an email which is never answered nor have I been contacted by phone in response to the email (which I have no proof was ever sent).  

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Responses

Response from Neil Doverty, Executive Director Fiona Stanley and Fremantle Hospitals Group, South Metropolitan Health Service 4 years ago
Neil Doverty
Executive Director Fiona Stanley and Fremantle Hospitals Group,
South Metropolitan Health Service

Submitted on 20/05/2019 at 1:11 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 2:29 PM

picture of Neil Doverty

Dear tangoec57

I was disappointed to hear of your experience in trying to contact the outpatient service at Fiona Stanley Hospital and have been looking into the matter. I am keen to ensure that you have an answer to your request, however without your specific details we are unable to ensure that this has been answered satisfactorily. I would appreciated it if you can contact us on 6152 4013 so that we can follow this up for you.

The Outpatient Call Centre does experience high demand times throughout the day and week when it does take longer to answer calls, however it would be highly unusual for a call to be queuing for 10minutes.

We have reinforced some of the measures that we have in place to ensure patient queries are answered promptly. Sometimes Clinic Clerks have not been following the log off procedure for their phones when not at their desk, which results in calls going unanswered or ringing out instead of returning to the call centre. This may have occurred in your case. We have reminded staff of the appropriate mechanisms to ensure calls are on-forwarded so that this does not occur again.

Emails sent through to clinic that require clinician input or follow up may take time to receive a response from clinical staff, which may result in delays to any call back. Clerical staff have been reminded to ensure emails are actioned if they need to follow up.

I hope to hear from you soon so that we can address your query.

Kind regards

Neil Doverty

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