GIC - no communications. Is this unusual?

[Steffi]

My communication with them has not been very frequent over the past couple of years but has been much as it always was during my RLE etc i.e I or my doctor do get a reply eventually but it usually takes 6 weeks or more to pass through the typing pool and actually get sent.
More recently, I have been emailing Nurse Iffy Middleton but now that she has left I am probably in the same situation as everyone else.

[No username]

Thank you for your replies.
I received the delayed letter in the post yesterday. My GP doctor sent them a fax a few weeks ago and told me if there was still no response after two weeks from then I was to contact PALS. So after I contacted PALS it seems to have sorted out. For all the claims of the admin problems and typing pool backlogs on this website it appears that the admin there dealt with it very quickly once it was written, typing it and sending it within a day. The dictation date on the letter shows that it was delayed because the doctor hadn't written it.

[Ice Maiden]

I have answered this GIC issue a couple of times here is what I posted elsewhere in a nutshell.

"Try 'snailmail' - I have contacted [another privately with advice on this] in question with some tips about getting through. Send it recorded and CC it to GP Surgeon and Head of Clinic. You'll note that the Surgeon ALWAYS writes to your GP and rarely calls them - there is a little clue there in how they operate. Of course they all have specialist practice nurses available by email too. So there are lots of ways to be heard. Not least visiting the clinic and walking up to the counter and speaking to them if you are 'in town'."


Hope this helps...

[Ice Maiden]

There is no paper-trail with a phone call especially if you need to take-out legal action!

Keep copies of everything and the signed for slips - go to the royal mail track and trace page and screen print the whole page (inc signature) as evidence it arrived.

Trust me they will respond!

But only if you are polite - concise (as possible) and remember they are human beings under stress and pressure too1

[Jane_D_C]

Hello,

I concur with everything that has been said about their letter writing and typing. It is not something they should be proud of. It is incredibly frustrating for us mere patients.

There is nothing any of us can do about the past, but there are little techniques you could use in the future.

One is to note the names of people who contact you, so that in future you can ring and ask to speak to them. Occasionally they will even volunteer direct dial numbers.

Another technique is, when you are there, ask how long it will take for the letter to appear. If they tell you four weeks, tell them that if it has not appeared after five weeks you will ring and ask where it has got to. They can’t complain if you do this. You are being eminently reasonable, and understanding of the constraints under which they have to work. But it does kinda show them that you mean business. I tried this on with one of the psychiatrists there. He took it just fine and the letter was produced by the agreed date.

What you could do is explain that your GP is getting anxious because he has not heard, and ask by when the GP should have heard. Then say that a week after that date you will follow up if nothing has happened.

Hope that helps,

Jane x.