Posting/faxing doctors letter to get medical appt

I need to have an MRI scan done and my GP gave me a referring letter and said I should phone the particular VHI-approved clinic to make an appointment. However, when I phoned I was told that I had to either fax or post the letter to them, and they would phone me back with the appointment, but to make sure I brought the original letter in when I came in for the scan.

Somebody I know was recently referred to a consultant by their GP and was told the same thing in regards to making an appointment, so I'm wondering is this a new trend generally. I can't figure out what's wrong with phoning to make an appointment?

It seems to me to be a real time-wasting exercise for more than 1 reason -
1. Most people wouldn't have a fax at home and there is a reasonable possibility that an ill person needing a medical appointment is off work and therefore doesn't have access to a fax.
2. If the original is posted and for some reason doesn't arrive at its destination, it could be some time before the patient begins to wonder what has happened, and then the doctor will have to write another referring letter.
3. This system removes the commonsense approach of finding a time that suits the consultant/clinic AND the patient as they could very well be told to present themselves at a time that is not suitable.
4. The consultant/clinic will end up with a copy and original referring letter.

Have any other AAMers had experience of this sort of appointment system and if so did you think it was a good one?

Well, what's the problem exactly?

it makes sense for the patient to make the appointment him or herself, surely, so that's not an issue. You could make the appointment immediately and send the fax whenever you can. If you can make it to the doctor, you can probably make it to a fax service provider. Or you could scan it and email it. Or make a copy at home on your 3-in-1 printer or scanner if you have one.

Maybe I'm missing something?

extopia said:

You could make the appointment immediately and send the fax whenever you can ...

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No, this is what's annoying me particularly. They will phone me and tell me when my appointment is going to be.

extopia said:

If you can make it to the doctor, you can probably make it to a fax service provider. Or you could scan it and email it. Or make a copy at home on your 3-in-1 printer or scanner if you have one.

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Personally I have these facilities readily available. A lot of people wouldn't. And it's pretty inconvenient for the likes of my neighbour who takes her unwell aunt to her medical appointments, she would have to organise sending the fax and then possibly take time off work to drive her aunt to the appointment. There are many people who are not in a position to get themselves to a medical appointment, so I think it is not fair to force a time that may not suit on the people they rely on to get them there.

The reason for seeing the letter first is that the clinic probably categorise the MRI requests according to urgency/length of time the scan will take etc and then allocate an appointment as appropriate.

Sounds just like the procedure in the public hospital system.....equal treatment for all perhaps?

The reason for sending a fax if available or if not, posting the letter before you get the appointment, is that all such letter referrals are seen by the relevant consultant, (radiologist in the case of MRI scan), and prioritised for appointment on the basis of medical need, not on the basis of appointment of first come, first served.So the person presenting with the most serious symptoms gets the first available appointment, not the person who's letter gets there first.Faxing the letter directly to the location also ensures there are no delays caused by 'snail ' mail. For extremely urgent appointments, it would be the practise for the referring doctor to ring the consultant directly. Hope this answers your query. This system applies in public and private medicine and is the fairest.

I am sure her GP would fax the letter through for her if she asked.

Thanks Brianne, that clarifies things a bit. Although, in my case the scan is not urgent, I was phoned the day after the fax was sent with an appointment just 2 days later, whereas I wouldn't have had a problem waiting a couple of weeks. Yet the other person I wrote about in my first post is waiting to hear about an appointment 2 months later (to see a consultant, not for an MRI).

Megan said:

I am sure her GP would fax the letter through for her if she asked.

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Megan, that wasn't the point I was trying to make (in any case, my GP had assumed I could just phone for an appointment), it was that the red tape had to be gone through first, and then the patient is told what their appointment is, which may not be convenient.

I had an MRI in a different place about a year ago, followed by a visit to a consultant. In both cases I was able to simply phone and make an appointment, so with my friend's and my own recent experiences, I was wondering has it all changed over the last year.

It also gives the MRI unit a chance to make sure the correct type of scan or body area has been requested by your GP. No point in spending all that money of the scan result is not helpful in the first place.

rob30 said:

It also gives the MRI unit a chance to make sure the correct type of scan or body area has been requested by your GP. No point in spending all that money of the scan result is not helpful in the first place.

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Fair enough, although I still don't understand why an appointment can't be made over the phone.