New hospital appointment booking system 26/6/08
An advanced appointment booking system will be introduced in the Western Isles Hospital from 1st July.
As part of the new Patient Focussed Booking system, patients will be offered a choice in the date and time of their appointment which means they can chose an appointment that is more suitable for their circumstances.
Medical Records Manager Bob Nicolson stated: “This means that patients are not given appointment dates in advance – but are invited to contact the hospital before their appointment is due to arrange a date and time convenient to them.
“It is also beneficial to us as we will only be booking appointments a few weeks in advance, so it is less likely that clinics will need to be cancelled. It is expected that this will lead to a reduction in those patients who do not attend and fail to let us know.”
He added: “We anticipate that this new system will lead to a better service in the future.”
The new booking system is being introduced for a number of outpatient clinics from July 2008 onwards, commencing initially with Surgical Referrals.
Before a patient is due to have an appointment, the hospital will write and ask them to telephone the appointment centre to organise a suitable date and time for their appointment. The patient will then receive confirmation of the appointment in the post.
If the patient has not responded within two weeks to their invitation letter, a letter will be sent to them reminding them to contact the hospital.
If the patient fails to contact the hospital within a fortnight then new and return patients may be removed from the outpatient waiting list.
If the appointment is no longer required, patients should inform NHS Western Isles – so that they can be removed from the waiting list and the appointment can be offered to another patient. If the appointment is no longer suitable, the patient can contact the Appointment Centre to change it.
