Owen Temple

It’s a privilege being a councillor. You can ask a lot of questions that most people never get the chance to, and talk to many people you would never meet otherwise.

That’s why when John, a constituent, asked me to look into why he had twice been told he could not have an out patient appointment at Shotley Bridge Hospital within 3 months, but could have one in Hexham or Durham, I was keen to investigate.

Sandra Long (in charge of the outpatients booking system) and Jackie Park (Acting Director of Access & Improvement) for the County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust quickly agreed that it would be a good opportunity for them to understand John’s point, and for me to get to grips with how the booking system works.

Everyone round here has heard conspiracy theories about the deliberate diversion of patients from Shotley Bridge Hospital. Would this cast any light on the situation?

John talked through the two different occasions. Both had involved the Choose and Book system, one in its early days and one more recently. In neither case had his outpatient appointment or surgical procedure occurred at Shotley Bridge.

Whilst there had clearly been problems in both cases, neither John nor I came away with any feeling that he had been the victim of a deliberate attempt to steer him away from Shotley Bridge Hospital. Indeed, both of us were convinced that the people we were talking to were 100% committed to providing the best service and the greatest possible choice to patients. They also accepted, however, that there were improvements in both training and communication which could improve the service and provide a better experience for patients.

They promised that those issues would be addressed with the people concerned.
To get the best out of the system, you need to know the following:

• When being referred for an outpatient appointment by your GP, you have the right to a discussion about where you want your appointment to be held, choosing between 4 providers.
• Not all GPs are using the computerised Choose and Book system. If your GP chooses not to use it, you may find it takes longer to get an appointment because it takes longer to send in a paper referral letter than it does to send in the information via the Choose & Book system
• Choose and Book in this area cannot manage referrals to a particular consultant, but you do have the right to that option. If you want it you should ask your GP to refer you outside the choose and book system and explain that the choice of a particular consultant is more important to you than the length of time you have to wait

There’s a huge range of outpatient appointments available at Shotley Bridge. You can find out what they are at http://www.nhs.uk/ServiceDirectories/Pages/Hospital.aspx?id=RXPCW&v=2

You do, however, need to be aware that not all day surgery in these specialties can be carried out at Community Hospital.

If you have experiences you’d like to share in this area, please let me know. I’ll make sure that whatever you want passed on gets to the relevant people.