I am in the same boat as many of you

My answerphone message must have worked.  Got an appointment at 10:45

Hi Stevecam,

I'm not sure blame is actually attributable to either hospital admin or Royal Mail, but more the old fashioned processes used.

I'm not sure what processes are used in hospitals, but when I used to work for a large organisation, they had an agreement with Royal Mail that because of the volume of letters issued, RM would collect it, but they then had several days to actually process it.  All this then allowed a lower postage cost.  This meant a letter could appear to have been written & signed in a reasonable timescale, but the delay in it entering the 'proper' mail system often meant quite a large time delay.

I have tried in the past to get things sent by email from the hospital but a look of horror then passes over their face.  Hopefully one day though it will become the norm for digitally aware patients.

Glad to see that your answerphone message bore fruit & you now have an appointment.

Best Wishes

Brian   

Brian, I saw the GP, what use she was!!!

But... I have finally got a Dentist appointment (in January, but Shhhh... Don't tell everyone!).

Just think, you could make a small fortune selling that appointment 

.. with a toothless grin!!!

Last year I was seeing an orthopaedics team and an orthotics team who were based on different floors in the same building. One corresponded with me by letter and the other by email. My oncology team set appointments by letter but all the appointments are by phone. Contact with my GP surgery works through an app. That actually works really well. It would be great to have one system that works for all of us, but in the meantime building a relationship with the staff can help.  

I was once giving a lecture in Vienna about lime mortars and used GT for the slides.  The students laughed and told me the slide was about lime the fruit. Ho hum.