Tackling our waiting lists: we may need to hear from you

(You may also find the information here on waiting for your procedure or appointment helpful).

To help us to tackle the large waiting lists caused by the Covid-19 pandemic we routinely contact patients waiting for appointments or procedures. Increasingly, this is by text message (SMS), but can also be by letter or phone call.

Over the last two years, many non-emergency operations and procedures across the NHS were cancelled or postponed because of Covid-19. We are working hard to prioritise these patients and will be contacting patients waiting for appointments at the Royal Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch hospitals.

We’re also looking at managing our waiting lists better, to ensure only those patients who need our care remain on them.

We contact patients in a range of ways, including text messages through our outpatient portal provider, Dr Doctor, which may include secure links to letters, and by post.

If you are contacted, please be assured that:

• our communication will only ever ask questions relating to your care
• we will never ask for bank details or reference to money or payment
• for security reasons, we may ask you to confirm your date of birth, and/or postcode.

Please respond promptly if you are asked to, so we can help you with your care or offer your future appointment to someone who needs it.

Electronic communication, eg by text message, is fast and secure, and it saves the NHS money. But we can only contact you if we have your up-to-date contact details and especially your mobile phone number – you can ensure we have yours by talking to the reception team at your next hospital appointment or by calling the number on your appointment letter.

Have you received a message from us saying that we understand you are no longer waiting to see a consultant for a follow-up outpatient appointment?

To help us to ensure we can prioritise those patients who need our care sooner, we’ve recently gone through our waiting lists looking at our outpatient follow-up appointment records and identified patients who no longer appear to need our care.

We’ve written to these patients, asking them to make contact with us using the details provided if they believe they are due to have a follow-up consultant appointment.

If you are under the care of another team or healthcare professional at UHD - this care will be unaffected.

You can find out more about this waiting list validation project in this FAQ here.

Patient initiated follow-up appointments

Some patients are being placed on what’s known as a patient initiated follow-up pathway, or PIFU. This enables patients to let us know if something has changed with their illness or condition, and a follow-up appointment can then be arranged.

If we have contacted you and you have a question or query about this, please contact us using the details below, preferably by email if possible:

• Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  Tel: 0300 019 2204.

If you are concerned about any aspect of your care you can call or email our PALS team, or have a general comment or concern:

• PALS tel: 0300 019 8499
• PALS email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.