A SHOCKED pensioner was sent a York Hospital outpatients appointment for 2am – on a date three weeks before the letter was even sent.

The letter from the hospital's eye department also warned Graham Perry that if he failed to attend the appointment without letting it know, he would be ‘discharged back to the care of your GP.’

Mr Perry, 82, from Pocklington, said that when he contacted the department, an employee told him it was only a 'holding' appointment but some patients had actually turned up at 2am and been turned away.

Mr Perry, who said he had been referred by his optician for possible cataract surgery, said he was told that his ‘real’ appointment would be in November and, if surgery was suitable, it would be done three or four months later.

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He said that fearing going blind, he had dipped into his savings and paid almost £6,000 for private surgery.

Mr Perry also said he had written to the hospital trust's chief executive about his experiences in June, but had not even received an acknowledgement, and he had now written again to express concern at the ’very, very poor manner’ with which he had been treated.

He said he was a former director of Guys Hospital in London and ‘believed’ in the NHS and York Hospital, and had used them successfully in the past and wanted to continue to use and support them.

York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said a Clinical Assessment Service (CAS) Clinic was implemented at the start of the Covid pandemic to safely manage outpatient referrals and appointments. 

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A spokeswoman said appointments booked into CAS were 'dummy triage appointments' at 2am as a way of receiving referrals, allowing clinicians to assess patients to decide the most appropriate pathway.  

"Once decided, we then contact patients by either letter or phone to confirm the date of their appointment as soon as it is booked on our system,"she said.  

"Unfortunately Mr Perry’s appointment letter gave him the details for the CAS clinic dummy appointment, instead of his actual appointment,  in error.  We apologise for the confusion caused by the administrative mistake."

She said the trust was also sorry for the time taken to reply to Mr Perry in writing, following a conversation with him in July.

She added that the trust was aware of other such appointment letters being sent in error 'but in the context of the hundreds and thousands of letters we send, it is in no way a common occurrence.'

She said she couldn't speculate as to whether or not anyone had ever turned up at 2am.

*Have you turned up at York Hospital at 2am after receiving a dummy appointment? Email mike.laycock@thepress.co.uk. Any request for anonymity fully respected.