Patient updates and service announcements

The NCTH team would like to apologise to patients for current, temporary delays in communication and correspondence.

 

Due to administrative vacancies in our team, we are currently unable to meet our target times for responding to patient or GP emails, sending letters after appointments or requesting blood tests. We are also experiencing some issues with keeping our phone open for the planned 3 days per week.

 

What do these delays mean for patients?

Below is a table summarising our target times for each communication type, and our current performance against those targets.

We are aware that these delays will have an impact on our patients and we apologise sincerely for this. Please be assured that we are working to resolve these issues as quickly as we can.

 

Are you still offering appointments?

We usually offer between 8-900 patient appointments per month and we are continuing to offer most appointment types at the same rate. We have,  however, reduced the number of 1^st assessment appointments per month from around 130 to around 80. Our total appointments will therefore be close to 800 than 900 while we tackle these temporary delays.

 

What if I need to get hold of the clinic urgently?

The clinic phone (0115 876 0160) will still be open from 08.30 to 16.00 on Monday and Wednesdays, and every Friday we can manage, while these delays continue. Please call us with any urgent matters.

 

When will these delays end?

While we don't yet have a firm timescale for recruiting to the administrative vacancies in the NCTH team, as soon as we know more we will let you know. Once we have recruited to the vacant posts, we will start working through the backlog. We'll keep patients up to date here on our website, and on our social media. In the meantime, thank you for your patience and please be assured we are working as hard as we can to get to your email, letter or call.