Information for patients – temporary closures to Booking Team telephone lines

The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital would like to make patients aware of a temporary change to the opening hours of the telephone lines for the Orthopaedic Outpatient and Inpatient Booking Teams.

Due to temporary staff shortages, the telephone lines will be open from Monday 20 July to Friday 24 July, between 9am and 12pm, for patients with queries about their orthopaedic outpatient appointment or planned surgery. This arrangement will be reviewed daily, with the aim of returning to normal opening hours as soon as possible.

The temporary afternoon closure will allow the teams to focus on essential work, including:

• Booking and scheduling outpatient appointments

• Booking and scheduling planned operations

• Managing waiting lists

• Processing changes to appointments and operations

• Responding to patient requests and administrative queries

During the afternoon closure period, patients are kindly asked not to contact other hospital departments, consultants' secretaries, wards or clinical teams with appointment or operation booking queries. These teams do not have access to the booking information needed to assist with these enquiries and will be unable to progress requests. Contacting the booking teams during their opening hours of 9am to 12pm will help ensure enquiries are dealt with as quickly as possible.

The Trust sincerely apologises for this temporary change and any inconvenience it may cause. Teams are doing everything possible to restore the service to its usual opening hours, and the situation will continue to be reviewed on a daily basis. The Trust appreciates patients' patience and understanding during this time.

Further updates will be provided if these arrangements change.