Anyone who has been on a waiting list to see our specialist services for more than 12 weeks will shortly be receiving a message from us to confirm if they still need their appointment.
The Trust will send all patients on our waiting lists a text message over the next few months. The message will explain that we would like you to confirm you still need your appointment. The text message will have a link for you to click on and then we ask some security questions and a verification code in order to check it is you. By choosing the referral box you can then tell us if you would still like your appointment or not. An example of what the screens will look like are below (it will say North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust at the top and NOT City Hospital below images are just examples).
Louise Buchanan, Associate Medical Director at NCIC said:
“In order to make sure that we are making the best use of our resources we are now getting in touch with patients who have been waiting a long time, to make sure that they still need to be seen.
“We are doing this by text message with a secure link. If you receive a text then we ask that you reply as soon as possible to let us know if you still need an appointment or if your circumstances have changed and you no longer need one.
“People may no longer need our specialist services because they have had the treatment privately, they have been treated at another Trust or they may have improved without the treatment. It’s important that anyone who no longer needs to be on our waiting list tell us so that we can speed up the process for those who do need to be seen.
“Our teams are working very hard to make sure that people are seen as soon as possible and our waiting lists are reduced.”
The text message will explain that we are aware that you are waiting for an appointment with a specialist service and we are checking to see if you need to remain on the list. You will not be charged for this service.
After you have told us whether you still need to have an appointment a member of our team will be in touch. Beware of scammers; NCIC will not ask for any other information other than whether you still need the appointment. We will never request money.
We will be sending messages in a phased way to everyone who is waiting for an appointment across all our specialist services. Those who have waited the longest will be contacted first.
Anyone who replies to say they no longer need the treatment will be followed up with a phone call to verify the reason. If they need to come off the waiting list that process is undertaken through the service and they will be discharged.