This page was last updated: May 20th, 2022
The Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust sees almost half a million outpatients every year, either face-to-face, or by video or telephone consultation. Our aim is to provide specialist consultation in the most appropriate setting at the earliest opportunity.
At the point of receiving a referral for a specialist opinion, the referral is triaged by a clinician who decides on clinical priority and whether the consultation should take place face to face (usually when an examination or same day investigations are required), by video or telephone.
We aim to ensure we value both patient and clinician time to ensure you are seen at the earliest opportunity in the most effective way, minimising the need to travel wherever possible, whilst maintaining high standards of care.
The Trust has made a commitment to achieving Net Zero (carbon neutral) by 2030. Since the middle of 2020, the changes made to delivering outpatients through introduction of video and telephone consultations have saved over 2,017 tonnes, equivalent to 677 flights from London to New York City.
Ask your clinician if a video or telephone appointment is suitable for your management.
The delivery of carbon neutral will increase through the introduction of Patient Hub to electronically communicate appointments, thereby avoiding having to send appointment letters in the post.
Help us achieve this by accepting your appointments online within 24 hours, when invited to do so, to avoid further reminders and save us sending a paper copy in the post.
You should have received a notification telling you:
If you need further information or require the details in a different format or language, please call 01872 255037.
If you cannot attend your appointment due to the time/date or because of the type of appointment you have, please let us know as soon as possible by calling the number on your appointment letter (or the relevant number detailed below) and we will arrange an alternative day/time and/or appointment type that is more suitable.
Please let us know at the earliest opportunity if you no longer need an appointment; this will allow us to offer the appointment to another patient.
If you do not attend your appointment, your clinician will decide if you should be offered another appointment or be discharged back to the care of your GP.
We are also committed to reducing the number of wasted appointments – currently 35,000 appointments are not attended each year, leading to longer waiting times for everyone and loss of £124 on average for each missed appointment. Help us to help everyone by letting us know if you cannot attend your appointment and need to rebook or no longer need our care.
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