I have lots of admiration for the NHS facilities that my wife and I have the opportunity to use over the years and I am eternally grateful for one operation that pretty much saved my life had I not reached the old PMH in time! Plus of course my Pacemaker operation at GWH whereby the experience was very reassuring due to the care that I received.

We have the opportunity to go to the other healthcare practitioners for treatment that is excellent and know that many others in the world do not have that same opportunity.

However, all that said, why do we receive letters that cancel appointments stating, “Due to unforeseen circumstances we cannot accommodate you on your chosen date and time etc..........we have tried to contact you to rearrange your appointment but have been unsuccessful. We would be most obliged if you could contact, abc, xyz, etc.”

We have an answerphone and caller display and so have an accurate record of who has called even though some numbers are withheld and when we ask, “When did you call, why wasn’t a message left etc,” we have the response, “We seem to have the wrong number, what is your number.”

If you ask, “What number were you calling”....you have to be prepared for a lot of waffle! We know that they have not tried to contact us, so why try to pull the wool over our eyes?

We can appreciate that there are many problems to be sorted within the NHS and many instances that leave us eternally grateful, so please can they be open and honest with us!

Hopefully my letter offers the praise due but with reservations.

Chris Gleed Proud Close, Purton