Hospital booking system

Healthwatch County Durham heard from a number of people who had been experiencing issues with the hospital booking system. Healthwatch County Durham wanted to find out more about people’s experiences and how the system worked from an internal process point of view. They asked for people to come forward with their experiences and also talked to a number of County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust (CDDFT) employees who work in the appointment booking area.

• Key barriers that patients raised included:
• Getting to early morning appointments can be difficult for people who don't sleep well
• Public transport availability in rural areas makes it challenging to get to appointments and patient transport only starts at 9am
• Problems finding a parking space meant that people missed appointments
• People receiving letters after the appointment has passed
• Some patients told about receiving a text message with a link to the NHS App to see the appointment letter.  There is no branding so people aren't sure whether the text is a scam or not
• Patients reported receiving letters with no clinic or doctor/consultant’s name on them.
• Patients also report long wait times for appointments, some in excess of a year’s waiting list. Patients also reported multiple cancellations and rescheduling of appointments which added to the delay of treatment and overall wait time.