No evidence that dental hospital received faxed referral letters

What happened

Mr L waited two months but heard nothing from the Trust. He visited the dental hospital and staff gave him the fax number to which dentists should send referrals. Mr L gave this number to his dentist to re-fax his referral. Mr L waited another month but the Trust did not contact him. He then arranged for his dentist to fax the two referral letters to his place of work. Mr L delivered them to the dental hospital and subsequently obtained his appointments. Mr L complained to the Trust about the inadequate management of his referrals, which caused him to suffer for longer than was necessary.

The Trust said that there was no evidence of any faxed referrals made for Mr L. It added that it had checked that its fax machines were working and had received other patient referrals at this time. Mr L was dissatisfied with this response and complained to us. He wanted acknowledgements and an apology.

What we found

The Trust provided an appropriate response to Mr L's concerns. There was no evidence that it had received the faxed referral letters. Therefore, the delay in booking Mr L's appointments was outside its control.

We did not uphold the complaint.