First Class Failure:
NHS and Royal Mail’s Magical Mystery Mail Service
So the NHS and Royal Mail have finally shaken hands and promised to stop losing hospital appointment letters like socks in a washing machine. What a novel idea! Only took, what, millions of missed appointments and a small mountain of complaints before someone went, “Hmm… maybe patients should actually receive their appointment letters before the appointment?”
I know, revolutionary thinking.
Apparently, they’ve now agreed to slap a special barcode on NHS letters…a sort of VIP pass for your biopsy results… so they don’t get mistaken for junk mail or sent on a scenic tour of the UK before turning up, fashionably late, a week after your MRI scan was meant to happen.
Because when it comes to health, nothing says urgency like “second-class bulk mail,” right?
Here’s a fun stat for you… two million of the eight million missed NHS appointments each year are due to letters arriving late. That’s two million people getting a firm slap on the wrist for being “no-shows” at appointments they didn’t even know they had. Patients are being made to feel like delinquents for not turning up, when really they were just waiting for Royal Mail to remember how to deliver post like it’s still 2025 and not 1840. My dad is convinced he soaked a Penny Black off the envelope of his last hospital letter!
Honestly, if I book an appointment with my garage, vet or even my hairdresser, I get emails, texts, carrier pigeons, and probably a singing telegram reminding me of the date. But the NHS? A single letter sent by the Ministry of Lost Post and Broken Dreams. And if it doesn’t arrive, tough luck… hope you enjoy re-joining the waiting list that now stretches into the next century.
Meanwhile, Royal Mail’s CEO is out here telling us they’ve “put the needs of the NHS at the heart of our universal service reform.” That’s sweet. Any chance they could also put a stamp on it? Maybe even deliver it? That’d be smashing.
And of course, there’s Professor Sir Steve Powis announcing that this new NHS barcode system will ensure patients get the “vital information” they need… unless of course, the barcode scanner breaks, the postman’s on strike, or the letter gets stuck behind your radiator with last year’s Christmas cards.
The fact we’re even celebrating this move as progress is frankly embarrassing. It’s 2025. People are tracking pizza deliveries in real time, getting text alerts when their cat’s smart collar senses anxiety, but can’t get a timely update about their colonoscopy? Priorities, folks, priorities…
Here’s a wild suggestion, how about we use text messages and emails? Maybe even… brace yourself… pick up the phone? I know, it’s a bold concept, but if my dentist can do it, surely the NHS can catch up?
And while we’re dreaming big, maybe the Royal Mail could actually provide the service they’re being paid for. After all, “First Class” should mean something more than “Eventually. Possibly. Maybe.”
Until then, spare a thought for families, like mine who’ve missed vital hospital appointments, not out of laziness or forgetfulness, but because their letter was last seen hitchhiking through Sussex with a confused postman and a broken satnav.
Fix the post. Use tech that’s older than TikTok. And for the love of all things moderately efficient… stop blaming patients for a system that can’t tell the difference between a medical letter and a pizza menu.
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Chris Geiger, Author of The Cancer Survivors Club.
Daily Dose of Disbelief!
Bsky: @chrisgeiger.com
Bsky: @thecancersurvivorsclub.com
Bsky: @dailydoseofdisbelief.com
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