Please attend your hospital appointments, urge Doncaster health bosses

Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals are telling local people with appointments with the Trust to keep them, unless contacted otherwise.

Since March, staff at Bassetlaw Hospital, Doncaster Royal Infirmary and Montagu Hospital have had to fundamentally change the way they work, physically altering the flow of the hospital sites to make them safe and leaning ever more on digital technology to continue to deliver high quality care and treatment for local patients.

This has meant that some routine appointments are now delivered virtually, using a programme similar to Skype or Facetime, while many scheduled clinics continue to run and are delivered in person. Doctors, nurses and other health professionals are urging local people to continue to keep these appointments, and to let the Trust know in good time if they are unable to attend.

David Purdue, Chief Nurse and Deputy Chief Executive, said: “Over the course of the pandemic, we have had to fundamentally change the way we work, as well as how we move around our hospital sites, in order to accommodate the challenges posed by COVID-19. Despite this, we continue to see both inpatient and outpatients, and we ask local people to keep any appointments they have with us.

“Since March 2020, we have undertaken almost 300,000 outpatient appointments. My colleagues have risen admirably to the issues we have faced as a result of Covid-19, however, patient care and treatment remains our first and utmost priority, and this will continue as we head further into winter. If you have a date to keep with one of our clinics, please do so, and contact us ahead of time if you need to reschedule.”

Unless you need to be chaperoned for very specific access issues, or you require a guardian or carer with you, you should attend your appointments on your own, asking anyone who has accompanied you to remain outside of the hospital.

Anyone symptomatic of COVID-19 or if you live in a household with someone who is, who has just returned from an overseas trip or with a cough, cold, diarrhoea, vomiting or a temperature should also not attend.

Face coverings must also be worn.