MUCH is of people not attending hospital appointments and quite rightly so as it means someone has to wait longer for treatment.

But what happens when the boot is on the other foot when a clinic is cancelled?

My wife attended such a clinic at Darlington Memorial Hospital.

When she arrived on the date and time specified she was informed it had been cancelled and a letter had been sent to inform her. Four weeks later, it has still not arrived.

I go to James Cook Hospital, in Middlesbrough, for a prosthesis check and am picked up by ambulance. It turned up today and I had received no appointment notification.

In fact, I was on my way out and could have missed my chance of a fitting for a new leg which requires a plaster cast being taken.

I suppose I could have gone round singing “All I want for Christmas is a new right leg”.

Apparently this type of mistake is quite common – although to date it’s the first time it’s happened to us Alec Telford, Darlington.