Typing Queue

[Christine]

When it comes to any sort of appointment, you have to turn up no matter what. It's different if you get there and they cancelled it, but saying the weather is too bad can cause them to put you back as they are worried the person will do it again. I know we can't control the weather but the place of appointment don't care even if your in hospital at the time, you miss an one session and they do what they want unfortunately and that goes for most businesses.

I usually stay in a hotel for at least one night to prevent that sort of thing happening. But considering the cost of doing so, it works out to an extremely expensive counselling appointment, which is what this one was for, and something I can't afford to do on a fortnightly basis. I had at least suggested that we discontinue further appointments, though I think it is a bit unreasonable to have a zero-tolerance policy towards their patients: as it was, I had one of my appointments at the GIC on the same day cancelled by them with less than 24 hours notice.

[bethy]

I understand very clearly where you're coming from on this. I had an appointment cancelled on the day I went to sign in for my appointment. Yes I was fuming, it was a very long way I traveled to them.

As for hotels and the what not, by time you've paid out on it, you might of been better off going private.

[Christine]

I understand very clearly where you're coming from on this. I had an appointment cancelled on the day I went to sign in for my appointment. Yes I was fuming, it was a very long way I traveled to them.

As for hotels and the what not, by time you've paid out on it, you might of been better off going private.

I sometimes wonder that, especially as anything "cosmetic" I'm pretty much guaranteed to have to pay for myself anyway. But I've heard that some stuff like the three-monthly injections of hormone blockers are very expensive. By which I mean very much more expensive than I could have imagined. Resisting the temptation to write about cheaper and more inappropriate solutions to that particular problem!

[Christine]

And today, a lesson in exactly why it's an incredibly bad idea to print the clinic's full name on its letterhead: my most recent letter had its corner torn off by an errant sorting machine. Thanks to whoever put the contents into a clear bag with "Gender Identity Clinic" on prominent display for all to see. Fortunately in my case I don't really care about the postman or family knowing about it (though some of the postal workers are known to be from a certain community who are quite hostile to this sort of thing) but in some cases the results could have been disastrous.

Ironically, it was a letter apologising for not sending out two previous appointment letters on behalf of the clinic's counselling service which resulted in me being discharged. By which I mean discharged from counselling, though obviously the situation could have been a lot worse.

At least I received an apology, even if its arrival was slightly perturbing.

[bethy]

Oh geez, hope this doesn't happen again. The letters are not the be all and end all, glad you received something eventually