Your experiences of Hospital Outpatient Appointment Letters

We heard:

330 people from across Sussex shared their views with us:

• Overall, respondents felt ‘very satisfied’ (42%) or ‘satisfied’ (25%) with the communication they received regarding their most recent outpatient appointment. 12% felt ‘dissatisfied’ and 8% felt ‘very dissatisfied’.

• Respondents were most dissatisfied with were information about who to contact with a query about your appointment (14%) and letter/ communication arriving sufficiently ahead of your scheduled appointment (13%).

• Of those who needed to contact the hospital with a question about their appointment,10% could not get to speak to anyone and 11% spoke to someone but their question was not answered to their satisfaction. 24% spoke to someone and felt their question was answered to their satisfaction.

• 79% of respondents said they were not given any information about choosing which provider (i.e. what hospital or service) they wanted to receive care from.

Respondents to our poll told us they would like to see:

Clearer information contained in hospital outpatient appointment letters about appointment details such as date and time of appointments and how to prepare in advance of your appointment.

“Making it very clear, at the top and in bold and in a square separate box, the date and time of the appointment.”

“Had a letter for gastroenterologist appointment however it had no details to say it was a gastroscopy which could have been a disaster if I’d eaten recently”.

“The letter I received [..]gave no information about the appointment. It looked like a bad photocopy and the content gave me no clue as to why I had to phone the number it was asking me to call”.

A move away from letters to more digitalized communication methods to save money, avoid duplication and avoid letters arriving too late in the post.

“Don’t waste money with printing & posting letters, email with attachments is way better.”

“Get rid of the paper letters – it’s not 1950 anymore! Just communicate through the app. So much money must be wasted generating and sending paper letters and by the time they arrive you have maybe changed the appointment anyway!!”

“Letters following consultations are duplicates of those sent to my GP and often arrive a long time after the appointment. I think much of this communication could be done by email which would save the expense of postage and not be subject to the vagaries of the postal service”.

Better information included in letters/ communication about how to change appointments.

“Clear details of how to change an appointment is required.”

“When an appointment is cancelled a new one should be given immediately and a number to contact to change that if it is inconvenient.”

“[It] took days to get in contact with someone for query and [was given an] incorrect phone number in letter.”

Next steps

As the public champion for local health and care services, Healthwatch will continue to work in partnership with commissioners and providers to monitor the experiences of patients and the public in accessing health and care services locally and explore how ongoing improvements may be delivered.

We will share the attached report with East Sussex County Council, NHS Sussex, Healthwatch England and others to share this insight and encourage its incorporation into future initiatives.

Tell Us Your Experiences 

Please tell us your experiences of local health and care services via our Feedback Centre and let us know how this has been for you. 

We want to hear if it has been good, bad or indifferent.

Help and support with Health and Care 

If you need help or support related to health or care, then please contact our Information & Signposting Service via 

0333 101 4007 or enquiries@healthwatcheastsussex.co.uk