Expediting Hospital Appointments
Non-urgent advice:
Expediting Your Hospital Appointment
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant delays and cancellations of outpatient appointments within the NHS. Consequently, many patients awaiting consultations or treatments have experienced prolonged waits.
If your symptoms have worsened while waiting for your hospital appointment, the agreement with the health authority is that you should contact the hospital directly. The consultant will then assess your updated symptoms and decide on the appropriate course of action.
Hospital secretaries may sometimes advise patients to contact their GP for an “expedite letter” to prioritise appointments. However, this approach rarely results in an earlier appointment and unnecessarily takes up a GP appointment that could be used for another patient in need.
Hospitals are better equipped to prioritise patients based on the severity of their symptoms and the overall waiting lists.
To assist you in communicating changes in your referral status, we have prepared two example letters for your use:
For patients awaiting their first specialist appointment
For patients awaiting a follow-up appointment, treatment, or surgeryNon-urgent advice: Important Note
Oakwood Medical Centre does not book appointments for expedite letter requests. It is your responsibility to contact the relevant hospital department, appointments team, or consultants secretary to follow up on the outcome of your request.Querying Wait Times for Your Appointment
If you wish to query the waiting times for the department to which you have been referred, you will need to contact the hospital’s appointments team or the secretaries at the department directly. We do not have access to the hospital systems to check wait times and are not provided with up-to-date information regarding delays for individual clinics.
If you are struggling to contact the hospital the numbers for Leighton Appointments and their PALS team are below. Our Care Coordinator’s can help to support patients and carer’s who may be unable to support themselves in doing this, please do contact us if you or a family member may benefit from this support.
Oakwood Medical Centre is committed to providing you with the support and recourses needed during these challenging times.
Being referred to a Specialist:
Non-urgent advice: Contact Details
When sending your letters or contacting the hospital, address it to either the Outpatient Appointments department (for initial consultations) or directly to your consultants secretary (for follow-up care). Below are the links to the contact details of local hospitals and support services:
- Leighton Hospital
- Warrington & Halton Hospital
- Wythenshawe Hospital
- Walton Centre
- Countess Of Chester Hospital
- Liverpool Heart & Chest Hospital
- Salford Royal Hospital
- North Manchester General Hospital
- University Dental Hospital Manchester
- Manchester Royal Eye Hospital
- Royal Stoke University Hospital
- Alder Hey Children’s Hospital
- The Royal Liverpool & Broadgreen University Hospital
- Liverpool Women’s University Hospital
Leighton Hospital Patient Advice & Complaints Team
The PALS team offers confidential advice, support, and assistance with concerns about your hospital care.
Website: Patient Advice and Complaints Team
Email: patientadviceandcomplaints@mcht.nhs.uk
Phone: 01270 612410
Warrington & Halton Hospital Patient Advice & Complaints Team
The PALS team offers confidential advice, support, and assistance with concerns about your hospital care.
Website: Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust – Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS)
Email: whh.complaints@nhs.net
Phone: 01925 662281
Wythenshawe Hospital Patient Advice & Complaints Team
The PALS team offers confidential advice, support, and assistance with concerns about your hospital care.
Website: Speak to the PALS team – Wythenshawe Hospital
Email: pals@mft.nhs.uk
Phone: 0161 276 8686
Walton Centre Patient Patient and Family Experience Team
The Patient and Family experience team offers confidential advice, support, and assistance with concerns about your hospital care.
Website: Patient and Family experience | The Walton Centre Website
Email: wcft.patientexperienceteam@nhs.net
Phone: 0151 556 3091
Countess of Chester Hospital Patient Advice & Complaints Team
The PALS team offers confidential advice, support, and assistance with concerns about your hospital care.
Website: PALS | Countess of Chester Hospital
Email: cochpals@nhs.net
Phone: 01244 366066
Liverpool Heart & Chest Hospital Patient & Family Support Team
The Patient & Family Support Team team offers confidential advice, support, and assistance with concerns about your hospital care.
Website: Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital | Patient & Family Support
Email: PFSTeam@lhch.nhs.uk
Phone: 0151 600 1639/1517/1038
Salford Royal Hospital Patient Experience Team
The Patient Experience Team team offers confidential advice, support, and assistance with concerns about your hospital care.
Website:Patient Experience Team :: Northern Care Alliance
Email: pals@nca.nhs.uk
Phone: 0161 778 5665
North Manchester General Hospital Patient Advice & Complaints Team
The PALS team offers confidential advice, support, and assistance with concerns about your hospital care.
Website: Complaints – North Manchester General Hospital
Email: complaints@mft.nhs.uk
Phone: 0161 276 8686
University Dental Hospital Manchester Patient Advice & Complaints Team
The PALS team offers confidential advice, support, and assistance with concerns about your hospital care.
Website: PALS – University Dental Hospital of Manchester
Email: pals@mft.nhs.uk
Phone: 0161 276 8686
Manchester Royal Eye Hospital Patient Advice & Complaints Team
The PALS team offers confidential advice, support, and assistance with concerns about your hospital care
Website: Speak to the PALS team – Manchester Royal Eye Hospital
Email: pals@mft.nhs.uk
Phone: 0161 276 8686
Royal Stoke University Hospital Patient Advice & Complaints Team
The PALS team offers confidential advice, support, and assistance with concerns about your hospital care
Website: Patient Experience and PALS | University Hospitals of North Midlands
Email: Patientadvice.uhnm@nhs.net
Phone: 01782 676450
Alder Hey Children’s Hospital Patient Advice & Complaints Team
The PALS team offers confidential advice, support, and assistance with concerns about your hospital care
Website: Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) – Alder Hey Children’s Hospital Trust
Phone:0151 252 5161
The Royal Liverpool & Broadgreen University Hospital Patient Advice & Complaints Team
The Patient Advice and Complaints Team (PACT) are there to support all patients, relatives, carer’s, and visitors
Email: PACT@liverpoolft.nhs.uk
Phone: 0151 706 2380
Liverpool Women’s Univeristy Hospital Patient Advice & Complaints Team
The PALS team offers confidential advice, support, and assistance with concerns about your hospital care
Email: PALS@lwh.nhs.uk
Phone: 0151 702 4353
Non-urgent advice: Private Referrals
Patients can ask their GP for a private referral form. We cannot recommend any specific private service.
Please leave enough time between requesting a private referral and your booked appointment as the request will need to be approved and written by the GP.
In most cases the GP will need to have a consultation with you about the referral unless it is something they have already been dealing with.
Please be aware of the responsibilities around Private Referrals, see the link below
