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Tuesday 13 September 2022

Slow postal delivery meant a missed appointment

Thanks to the Royal Mail taking nearly a week to deliver a 1st Class letter from Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich, to my house, I missed an appointment yesterday with the oncology consultant who is dealing with my prostate cancer. (I can actually see the hospital from my house as it is just about a mile away!)

The hospital is trying to rearrange this appointment as soon as possible as I was expecting to discuss the next stage of my treatment at my next appointment with the consultant.

I was not a happy bunny and tweeted about this, using @RoyalMail in my tweet. This is the reply I got from them:

Thanks for contacting us. We aim to deliver 1st class mail the next working day and 2nd class in 3 working days. These services are not tracked however we're confident your item will arrive soon. If it hasn't been delivered 10 working days after the due date, the sender can submit a claim via: personal.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/de…

So, it’s obvious that all I got was a standard, bot-generated reply, and that no one actually read my original tweet. I found this reply quite insulting, and I’d rather have not had an answer from the Royal Mail than to have had this reply.

I’m still not a happy bunny!

10 comments:

  1. That's awful, but not surprising. You have enough to worry about.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nundanket,

      I was already feeling rather stressed, but this really did ramp that feeling up.

      What made me feel worse was the fact that Sue and I were out having our COVID booster jabs when the post was delivered, otherwise I might have been able to contact the hospital earlier and they might just have been able to fit in an appointment today.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete

  2. Bob -
    So the Tories are planning on privatising the Royal Mail then, I take it? There is no excuse for the unreliability of an essential public service. Nor is there anything to be gained by 'de-personalising' the service - least of all to people who most have need of it.
    Here's hoping the Royal Mail bucks up its game.
    Ion

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Archduke Piccolo (Ion),

      I regret to inform you that the Royal Mail was privatised in 2013 during the third year of the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government, and is now a limited company. The service it offers has not improved as a result … and I doubt that it ever will.

      All the best,

      Bob

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    2. Bob - but surely “market forces” will drive UP quality and give the customer an improved service at cheaper prices? Clearly that methodology cannot fail - that’s what all the politicians tell us (and they are never wrong).
      Urghhh… must… stop… with all this sarcasm…
      Regards,
      Geoff

      Delete
    3. Bob -
      I might have guessed. This country went the same way even before then...
      At any rate I hope that there's no further delay to your ongoing medical programme.
      Regards,
      Ion

      Delete
    4. Elliesdad,

      Of course it will drive up quality ... the quality of life of those who own the 'new' service provider! As for better quality service at cheaper prices ... well in theory that should happen, but in practice I have yet to see this occur.

      Of course politicians are never wrong; it is the electorate who just didn't understand that what they meant was the opposite of what they said!

      (I think that I prefer sarcasm to cynicism any day!)

      All the best,

      Bob

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    5. Archduke Picocolo (Ion),

      I have the feeling that as the country struggles to cope with the free market's effects on the current gas and electricity supply crisis, the problems with the national railway network, and the appalling water supply system, more and more people are beginning to realise that whoever said not to sell the family silver (i.e. to sell of the public utilities) might have been right after all.

      Just wait till they realise the impact of the backdoor privatisation of the health and education services is having (it was called the private finance initiative [PFI]) ... and we might just see a change in the way the UK is governed.

      Political rant over.

      All the best,

      Bob

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    6. Hi Bob. Sorry to hear about your missed appointment. Does your local hospital offer a text or e-mail notification service? I now get a text with a link to appointment details/letters etc and this works very well. Also, the date on a letter may not necessarily mean it was posted on that day - particularly when coming from a large organisation and strike action may have adversely affected things. Anyway, I do hope you get things suited soon.

      All the best, Simon

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    7. Simon,

      Funnily enough, before this recent incident, I've always had a text from the hospital or GP to remind me about any appointments I might have. It is only since I moved from the urology to oncology departments that the problems with communications have happened. I only just avoided missing an appointment on 5th September because someone phoned up to check if I had had a blood test for an appointment that day, and a week later I didn't even get that.

      I have asked that all future communications are also sent by email ... just in case.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete

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