Waiting for your appointment

We will try to book an appointment that is convenient to you whenever we can, but this is not always possible.

How do we book your appointment?

University Hospital Southampton (UHS) is introducing a new way of managing appointments to help us see patients at the right time, in the right place, and as soon as possible. Our aim is to decrease waiting times and the number of times we rebook your appointment.

At the moment, when we get a referral, we book the patient into the next appointment available, even if this is many months in the future. This often means we rebook patients many times to bring the appointment closer. Under the new system, patients will be added to a waiting list in order of clinical need and referral date. We will then make the appointments about six weeks in advance, working down the waiting list to book them.

As part of changing to this new way of booking, our booking teams will be cancelling appointments and moving patients into a waiting list. Patients will receive a letter if this has happened to them. If you do get one of these letters, please don't be worried, you will still be seen. Some services will not use this new way of booking and will continue as normal.

You can find out more about the changes to the appointment booking process here.

When you are referred to us, your treatment should start within 18 weeks, unless you choose to wait longer, or it is clinically in your best interests to wait. This will be discussed and decided at your appointment with your involvement.

Shared decision making (SDM) is making sure that you can be part of the conversation with the healthcare professional at your appointment and that you understand the positives and negatives of any treatment options available to you. Decisions should be based around what matters to you, your beliefs, concerns, and expectations.

If you choose to delay your appointment or treatment, or cancel multiple times, this will affect how long you wait to be treated. Your doctor may also decide to discharge you back to your GP.

If you're waiting to hear from us about an appointment and are concerned that your appointment letter may be lost in the post, please contact the outpatient administration centre (OAC).

While you are waiting for an appointment, there is information that can help you on our waiting well pages.

Checking your hospital waiting time

You can use the NHS app to check that you are on a waiting list, view your estimated waiting time, and find out who to contact if you have any issues. Find out more and download the NHS app here

For information about waiting times please visit the guide to NHS waiting times on the NHS website.