I arrived for my appointment well in advance. I followed the instructions and spoke to a reception staff person, there were two working at the time of my arrival. The staff I spoke to checked my details and told me to take a seat. I waited until 20 minutes past my appointment time, before asking when I might expect to be seen. During my wait everyone that came in after me had been called for their appointments. I spoke to the other reception member of staff, as the one I had spoken to originally was on the phone. The staff checked the screen, looked embarrassed and said they would let the clinical staff know I was there. It was obvious that the reception staff person I had spoken to almost 1 hour earlier had not informed the clinical staff that I was waiting for my appointment, once that had been done, I was seen immediately. Clinical staff were very pleasant and apologetic for the reception staff not passing the necessary information to them, they told me they had not been told I was there. The reception staff made no attempt to apologise for their oversight, the clinic wasn’t particularly busy. There was no acknowledgement of any inconvenience the delay may have caused and worse, no interest as to why someone is sitting in the waiting area of an NHS clinic, for almost an hour with seemingly no reason to be there. It’s not a large waiting area nor was it particularly crowded or busy and with two staff on, it would seem that neither pays any attention to what is going on in the waiting area, who is in that area or what they are doing.

I had to visit the Breast Clinic after suffering mastitis and the team of nurses, assistants and sonographer were brilliant. I was made to feel valued and listened to, and the staff were clearly very knowledgeable and experienced. I felt in safe hands and they went out of their way to make me feel comfortable. The only negative I have is I did have to wait over 2 hours past my appointment time, but it was worth the wait. Just make sure to clear your day of plans if necessary as you may have to wait as they are extremely busy.