Forum Topic

Mail Delivery

I live at an extreme end of the borough close to the AELTC.We have not had a mail delivery for at least a week and I am expecting a hospital appointment letter.Yesterday I spoke to someone in Customer Service (sic) at Royal Mail.The reason I was given ?'Staff shortage due to Covid related absences'.And when can I expect any mail ?'In about nine (9!) days time'.I did ask why they did not recruit more staff, even temporarily, and pointed out that many years ago around this time of the year, I had been taken on without any procedural rigmarole as a student postman for the Christmas rush."Yes but, no but..." !What a Godsend Covid is turning out to be as an excuse for many businesses and other public bodies for the terrible service they offer.Yet....I can order something on Amazon and it will come the next day.They don't seem to have 'Covid related staff issues'.Perhaps Jeff Bezos could land his space ship here and take on our Postal Services !!  

John Hawkes ● 1299d30 Comments

I think I've caused confusion with my lazy shorthand for appointment. Even so more and more of us are using some and maybe more digital methods of communicating with hospitals and surgeries.  One of the easiest things to do now is to request repeat prescriptions online. The prescription can be sent digitally direct to the pharmacy from the surgery.

Philippa Bond ● 1295d

The Royal Mail is now a fully independent FTSE 100 PLC quoted on the LSE now the government has sold all its shares. Post Office Ltd is a limited co!pasny wholely owned by the government. It might like to change its status but thanks to the Horizon IT scandal and the compensation it has to pay it's unlikely to happen seen. The treasury has now written down its value to zero!https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10247681/Cost-compensating-falsely-accused-postmasters-Post-Office-business.html

Michael Ixer ● 1295d

Barbara  I'm not criticising you I'm just saying that with my friend the appt was an urgent one and the letter took too long so unless they can phone you - you can have the trauma of organising a taxi to get to a hospital appt that has been cancelled.  I think (hope) I'm on a waiting list myself but I've yet to even be given a date.  There have been suggestions that we might have to travel further away for surgery than we would have done pre-pandemic.

Philippa Bond ● 1296d

Merry Christmas Patrick, have a lovely time on the beach.

Barbara Stevens ● 1296d

So sad to hear the demise of the Postal delivery service in Putney. Back in the 1960s both my father and I worked in the Putney sorting office (across the road from the Coat and Badge) - I firmly remember the Christmas of 1966 - my first delivery was lower Richmond road 1. Starting at Kenilworth Court - early Christmas morning - some of my customers would great me with a shot of brandy or whiskey and some with a monitory Christmas gift. One of my customers was Clive Dunn (the comedian), he presented me with a tie and two and sixpence. By the time I had completed my delivery to Kenilworth I was very "merry", with University mansions still to go!!!. I would arrive home to my Mum and Dad in a real CHRISMAS mode. Happy days - but that bitter winter drove me to "sunny cimes" I emigrateed to Australia - and will be spending Chrismas this year at the beach with my expanded "aussie family" I still hold fond memories of Putney - HAVE A MEMORABLE FESTIVE season

Patrick Barrs ● 1297d

I see you're correct, Matt - the NHS App does have an appointment tab but if I click on GP appointments "Book an Appointment" button I get the message "No appointments available to book online at this time, You'll need to contact your GP surgery to book an appointment". An aspirational feature still to be implemented? Still, it's got my booster jab recorded now (and yesterday's LFT test) :-) [Reminds me of the database spec I read in the early 1980s that had TBD for the roll forward and back features - it never got completed ....]The app does have a message facility as well.

Michael Ixer ● 1297d

I'm not for a minute suggesting that appointments should only be available by the app, that would be completely unfair.My NHS digital app says i can book GP appointments but tbf i havent actually tried it

Matt Palmer ● 1297d

my phone, laptop etc are fully backed up into the cloud. i have accidentally destroyed my phone on a couple of occasions and it's simply a matter of getting another and logging into the new one with same details.Once logged in i get all my numbers back etc, all my reciepts for my accountant go to a cloud based app called receiptbank.i'm not describing anything unusual, this is how most people work nowadays

Matt Palmer ● 1297d

Philippa, give it a rest will you, 6mnths then 4mnths then. Does it really matter. Your lucky if you get an appointment. My next one was for May 2023. If it hadn't been sent by a letter, I probably wouldn't have noticed. So thank you Hospital for your mistake, I picked up on it straight away should have been May 2022. So there Philippa, I'm sure you don't live in this area so I'm happy with our Post and our letters.

Barbara Stevens ● 1297d

Lots of hospital appts aren't in 8 months' time - priority ones can be in just a few days' time.

Philippa Bond ● 1297d

It's an interesting point, Matt. I keep a lot of things on line but I still keep a lot of paperwork. My calendar's in Hotmail and my phone's contact list is in Google and Dropbox. However, hospitals still send appointment confirmations by post which they ask me to bring with me, and send me post consultation letters (which I do scan but also keep the originals). I've also noticed that some banks when they send replacement credit cards with new PAN numbers drop the old card from online banking when it's cancelled so one loses statement records for it if one hasn't downloaded them. And Iron Mountain still make a lot of money storing original documents with "wet signatures" on them ...

Michael Ixer ● 1297d

Matt, perhaps that's the long-term aim but I don't think one can make appointments (or be sent details of them) with hospitals or GP surgeries yet, unless I've missed something. (Although it's good to be able to check all my test results using it.) There's also some confusion; there's NHS App, the NHS Covid-19 App and the Heathbridge Practice uses a service from a private supplier, accuRx Ltd, for appointment bookings. (That's the company using the NHS.me domain that not only caused me but also an NHSX security analyst I was chatting to at an event to do a security check on its veracity!)Yes, it would be good if there was a secure, reliable single NHS App for making appointments, but isn't that just widening the digital divide? If one doesn't have a Smartphone or can't use one for some reason that's creating a major problem.I think the government wants all its business to be digital as far as possibly to cut costs. I'm sure it's happy for people to use the Royal Mail for greetings, post cards and Amazon deliveries provided it doesn't have to subsidise them ....

Michael Ixer ● 1297d

What if you loose your phone. My other half is a builder, who has so much paperwork couldn't possibly keep on his phone. How do you keep things for your Accountant, all receipts etc.  If you lost your phone what about all important numbers.

Barbara Stevens ● 1297d

I think there's a generational difference Barbara, absolutely zero offence intended but I think younger people like myself (sadly not that young) use our calendars on our phones and i have no issue with checking docs via an app. I don't have a folder at home with letters and things like that, everything is online for me.

Matt Palmer ● 1297d

I always have letters sent me from the Hospital. I don't see the problem. The Surgery notifies you on you phone. But what is the point in a Hospital telling you your next appointment is in 8 mnth time. Surely most want this in letter form to keep. Also private information about your check up so you can keep in a folder.

Barbara Stevens ● 1297d

I have the NHS App (not the covid one) on my phone and that appears to replace the need for letters?fully appreciate not all are comfortable with that though!

Matt Palmer ● 1297d

Quite honestly the cynic in me still thinks that this has all been a Govt desire to completely dispose of the Royal Mail/Post Office.Aren't you supposed to be able to give your mobile number to your GPs' surgery and then that information is shared with any hospital you are referred to?  That means that if your appt is cancelled last minute they can phone you so that you do not make an unnecessary trek to the hospital (as happened to our friend with no mobile).I think that hospitals often get you to make your appt by phone and then send you a letter of confirmation by Royal Mail.

Philippa Bond ● 1297d

Yes, I realised that but actually the bills (well, statements) DO normally arrive on time. Yes, I do most things on line but I still get credit card statements by post firstly, so I remember to pay them, which I'm less likely to do if there's an annoying piece of paper lying around, and, secondly, to annoy the banks because they, like may government departments, sometimnes want to see an original statement with an address on as proof of where I live! A  total nonsense,  particularly as one has to obfuscate the sensive stuff: account numbers, values, etc; and haven't they heard of Photoshop?

Michael Ixer ● 1297d

Royal Mail will be history shortly. I use once a year for 10ish cards. Away from that all on line.I've not had a cheque book for many many years...bills are on line...paid on line...can't recall last paper bill...Mr Ixer I was joshing!

Simon Knight ● 1297d

John, I don't know if your nearer to Wimbledon, but we don't have much problems in Putney. The sorting office is just off the Upper, If one of them is off, we then get a Postman about lunch time does his walk. Also our Postman is nearly always on the dot 9.30am. After seeing an article on FBook yesterday a nurse was taking her dog for a walk on a common and saw a car with a load of parcels. The delivery person told her he was just sorting out the parcels.  When she came back from her walk the car had gone and all the parcel had been thrown in a ditch. She decided to look at them, actually found one which was for her, on her phone she had received a message saying your parcel has been delivered. So obviously she reported this and he got the sack.

Barbara Stevens ● 1297d

More and more Post Offices closed and buildings sold off.  The hideous scandal of the Post Office computer system also can't be forgotten,  I keep hearing of people in sorting offices being ill or off because they have to self isolate.  I guess there are now more staff in smaller premises and that won't be helpful in the current situation.

Philippa Bond ● 1297d

Simon. That's because most commercial email is delivered in bulk, presorted, by specialist print companies either directly to Royal Mail distribution hubs or to Whistl or other logistics companies so the RoyalMail only really has to worry about getting the so called "last mile" delivery done correctly.

Michael Ixer ● 1298d

Doesn't seem so bad to me...the bills appear to arrive on time.

Simon Knight ● 1298d

A good example of where text based instant communications loses out over face to face - or even Zoom video. I'm sure vocal and visual impressions would have highlighted the sarcasm? I guess snail mail is caught up in the usual spiral of discontent: the worse its service gets and the more it puts up its prices to cover costs the less people are inclined to use it? Cheap or "free", fast or seemingly instant services using telecommunications and the internet are difficult for post to compete with - these days holiday snaps are more likely to be posted on Facebook in preference to sending a postcard, and even critical legal documents are distributed on secure web sites ... and paper theatre and concert tickets are a rare sight these days ...

Michael Ixer ● 1298d

i was being sarcastic...

Matt Palmer ● 1298d

Mr PalmerI do not understand how privatising a monopoly service will cause it to improve.In fact probably the opposite.A private company is susceptible to pressure from either its shareholders or its customers.If the customers have no alternative service to choose then "s0d them" !At least when the Post Service was state owned, we could pressure politicians who could in turn pressure the executive of the service.In the end ownership makes no difference to the customer and if we are honest in both instances the staff through their Union power hold the whip hand.

John Hawkes ● 1298d

How times change ... there's history at the London Museum, seven collections a day including Saturday!https://flic.kr/p/2mLWYsT

Michael Ixer ● 1298d

When I post a birthday card now (about the only thing I use a post box for) I take a photo of it going into the post box with the date. In the past i've had sarky messages from family members when a card has arrived two weeks late!

Matt Palmer ● 1299d

I received a phone call asking me why I hadn't turned up for my hospital appointment, I received  my letter two weeks after the appointment date!!! This is not the first time this has happened.Now the hospital call me to advise the time and date of any appointments as they have heard this story from many other patients.

Karen Taylor ● 1299d

I thought privatising them was supposed to improve service?

Matt Palmer ● 1299d