Why should I have to wait 2 years to see a specialist because of someone else's mistakes?

At the end of 2003, my GP referred me to the local Mental Health Trust to see a specialist. I have suffered from frequent bouts of severe anxiety and depression for many years, and although anti-depressant medication helps, I felt it was becoming less and less effective, and had reached a point where I wanted to try to understand the underlying causes of my anxiety and depression and if possible find better ways of dealing with it. I saw the specialist in January 2004, and she agreed to refer me for Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy (CBT). She said there was a waiting list - about 6 months. Having lived with this problem for many years now, I felt that I could manage to wait another 6 months to try a form of therapy that I hope will help. I had a further meeting with the specialist a couple of months later, just to review how I was getting on.

Two to three months later, I received a letter from the clinic informing me that that specialist had left and another one had taken up the post.

After that, the silence was deafening.

I waited patiently, imagining that the waiting list was taking longer than expected to move. But as the months went by, I started to wonder what was happening. I phoned the clinic a couple of times, to ask what was happening. Each time, I was told that I would have to talk to the specialist, but that they were not available. I asked for someone to call me back, and was assured that someone would. No-one ever did, and no other information was ever offered.

A few months ago, I spoke to my GP about this. They were surprised to hear that I was not, by now, receiving the therapy agreed on, and that I hadn't heard anything further from the clinic. They had not received any communication from the Mental Health Trust about me, and so as far as the GP was aware, I was still on the Mental Health Trust's "books". They suggested phoning the trust again. I did, with as little success as before. When I next spoke to my GP, they agreed to refer me again for counselling. A while later, I received a questionnaire similar to one I had filled in the first time I was referred. I filled it in, and added a note explaining the previous referral, and posted it back.

Once again, the silence was deafening.

Finally, a couple of weeks ago, I was having a really bad day, so I took some time off work and went down to the Mental Health Trust in person. I told the woman in the Reception office that I wanted to speak to someone about my GP's referral. She asked me to wait as she had to finish a couple of letters first! I stood there for about 5-10 minutes while she spoke to lots of other people, typed a few things, dealt with a couple of phone calls, etc. I began to feel completely invisible. Finally someone else suggested that she attend to "that woman". She turned back to me and asked for my name and date of birth. She then looked up my details on the computer system, and said that I had been discharged a year ago after failing to attend four consecutive appointments (well what she actually said was more like "The computer shows DNA, DNA, DNA, DNA, discharged" and I had to ask pointedly what "DNA" meant!).

I'm afraid what little composure I had left deserted me at that point, and I started to cry (as much from frustration as anything else!) and pointed out that I had never received any notification of any appointments, nor had I received any notification of being discharged from their books.

This reaction did at least get their attention, and I was taken into a room where I was then joined by one of the managers. But she wasn't able to tell me much, because apparently my file (being regarded as not currently active) was in a room that was currently being used for a consultation, so she couldn't get hold of it to review what it contained. But at least she said she would check what my current status was on the CBT waiting list.

I have now been informed that I am on the waiting list, but not from any referral in January last year - that appears to have vanished into thin air - and that it will be January 2006 at the earliest before I will be able to see the CBT specialist. My GP has no record of any letter from the Mental Health Trust discharging me. It appears that someone somewhere has made a mistake, and either sent the appointment notifications to the wrong address, or even not sent them at all. But no-one appears to be willing to take any of that into account. I still have to wait a further 3-4 months. I'm being offered "interim" counselling with a Graduate Counsellor in the meantime. How useful or productive that will be, I wait to see.

I am really angry at how I have been treated by the Mental Health Trust. I am also appalled at the complete lack of common courtesy shown in the way they spoke to me when I went there a couple of weeks ago - I was ignored, had jargon thrown at me (the manager also kept using acronyms like "CBT" until I asked her to please explain what she was talking about). I have received no apology for the additional delay I am experiencing in accessing the help I need, no explanation as to what happened to the CBT referral made at the beginning of 2004, and no suggestion that I might be moved up the waiting list having already waited more than 3 times as long as I should have.

I have sent a letter of complaint to the Mental Health Trust and wait to see what their response is.