ENT Appointment

Track of the day - Partlife - Prince Edward Island.

The Bogsville NHS Choose and Book system is still refusing to book me an ENT appointment.
I went online this morning, I had nothing better to do, the Choose and Book screen indicated that an appointment was available on April 14, a waiting time of 33 days.
I booked it.
A 'Do not close your browser while we finalise your booking' message came up on the screen.
I left the browser open.
Eventually the screen changed.

Booking Confirmation
Your appointment can not be booked.
Please contact the Choose and Book Appointments Line on 0845 xx xxxx x or your referrer Doctor. You can find their contact details on www.nhs.uk.

I phoned the 0845 number. A human link in the NHS booking chain told me that she couldn't help because her computer system currently had a blank screen' and that I should phone again later by which time she hoped that the system would be working again.
I decided to go back online to see if the appointment slot was still available.

Step 2 of 3: Choose Your Appointment
There are currently no appointments available, please try again later.

I went downstairs to make a cup of coffee and found a letter from the hospital. The letter contained details of an appointment with an ENT consultant for Wednesday 2nd April. Confused, I phoned the Hospital to find out what was going on and was told that the appointment didn't exist and that the letter was a mistake.
At 14:42 I logged in again to see if they had fixed the problem and discovered that I was now locked out of the system.

"This reference number is currently locked because of an incorrect logout. Please contact the Choose and Book Appointments Line on 0845 xx xx xx x to have the reference number unlocked."

Mrs B says that I should forget the NHS and pay to see a consultant and she's probably right but that isn't the point. An NHS hearing test diagnosed that I have a problem and referred me to my NHS doctor who suggested that I should see a NHS Ear Nose & Throat consultant. The NHS designed and paid for the Choose and Book system so I'm choosing to use it, if only to prove that it doesn't bloody work.
According to Alistair Darling's 2008 Budget speech today,

"The focus for the next decade on the NHS will be creating 'world-class services'."

World class services? What planet do you live on Mr Darling?