Waiting for your appointment
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Your appointment record
Secure access to your health information, all in one place
Every time you visit hospital, details of your care are added to your health record — from appointments and test results to medicines and allergies. Keeping this information in one place helps your hospital team plan and deliver your care safely.
With Patients Know Best, you can securely view:
- your hospital appointments
- your test results and letters
- information recorded about your care, such as medicines or allergies
It’s free, easy to use, and available through the NHS App or a web browser. Patients Knows Best contains your health information from May 2023.
Sign up to Patients Know Best and view your record online
Staying well while you wait
Staying well
We understand waiting for your appointment or procedure can be stressful. To help, here are some tips for staying well while you wait:
- Increase your activity levels to improve strength and recovery.
- Quit smoking to reduce chance of complications during surgery and recover quicker.
- Eat a healthy balanced diet to support healing and fight off infection.
- Don’t drink more than the recommended limits .
- Local Talking Therapies services can offer a range of help.
- Learn how to control long-term health conditions such as asthma , diabetes or high blood pressure .
Appointment waiting times
How long will I wait for my appointment or procedure?
Once we receive a referral from your GP or healthcare provider, you will be placed on the relevant waiting list. Wait times will vary depending on the type of appointment or procedure you are waiting for, and department.
- You can check average wait times by using the NHS My Planned Care platform , which provides breakdowns by specialty and NHS trust.
- We prioritise patients according to clinical need , and we are actively working to reduce the number of patients waiting over 52 weeks.
- Please look at this website before contacting your GP or hospital clinician for an update about any procedures you are waiting for.
Do you still need your appointment?
Do you still need your appointment?
If you no longer require your appointment or procedure, either because you have received treatment elsewhere or because your situation has improved, please let your clinical team know as soon as possible. You can also find out more about managing your appointment here.
Giving you the choice to be seen elsewhere
Can I be seen elsewhere?
If you’ve been waiting over 18 weeks, you have the legal right in England to request a Patient Initiated Decision to Move Provider (PIDMAS). Barts Health will contact eligible patients (those waiting >40 weeks without a date in the next 8 weeks) via letter or text.
Mutual Aid
To help with waiting lists, we are working together with North East London (NEL) NHS hospitals to offer treatment to every patient who is on a waiting list in the quickest possible way.
One way in which we’re making this happen is by each hospital offering access to their specialist doctors for some services, to patients waiting on any hospital list in NEL. You can find out more by reading the mutual aid leaflet below.