CHEC Reviews 106

Difficulties arranging appointments their telephone line says wait 4 weeks after a test for them to text you an appointment. Eventually after 4 weeks & no text message got to speak to a human, told I needed two appointments (fair enough) but said they were only able to book one. The don't seem to want to book follow up appointments.
There's no actual admin/reception staff at the local (Kidderminster) centre, apparently they just rent the space, so for appointments you have to phone up, with long waits and then long lead times before the appointment.
Having had tests at Kidderminster I was told the machine was faulty so had to rebook, with yet more long lead times for appointments,
I will try to find an alternative to this organisation.

Never been treated so terribly in all my live would not recommend imran Rahman is a very rude individual I would recommend going else where

Communication with this company is extremely difficult. I have been unable to speak to a human being and although I have cancelled my appointment I have continued to get messages, which don’t allow a reply, stating I have an appointment. I have tried to phone to cancel again but am left waiting in a long queue. I had many questions about the surgery which remained unanswered and I am requesting a referral to a different agency as I feel if they can’t manage their communication in an accessible and considerate manner,I do not want to trust them with something as critical as my sight.

CHEC Newcross what a shambles my opticians referred me to them to have a cataract removed after 7 weeks I still couldn't see went back to the clinic 3 more times they said they can't see anything wrong yet 3 times my optician could see the lens was all cloudy so then CHEC decided to do a laser treatment still no improvement had to get referred to St.thomas opthalmology who informed me that the treatment I had at CHEC had damaged my eyesight further leaving me very short sighted to a point I can't see anything even with glasses my consultant at St.thomas hospital is unsure if I will get my sight back and also informed me that I need to have a MRI as there is significant swelling at the back of my eye which could be a tumour but until I have the MRI I have to attend St.thomas hospital in london every 6 weeks to rule out if I have a tumour behind my eye or on my brain and I was advised to take the matter further which I have started the process by speaking with a solicitor and my local MP.

Just arrived to be greeted by a yawning receptionist, no eye contact or any attempt to be pleasant. Then TOLD to sit down.

Sign by reception says "Wait to be called to reception". Whatever happened to "Please". This creates a horrible atmosphere and they need to treat people with more respect. It doesn't give me any confidence that I am going to be treated any better by consultants.

This company has been a shambles from start to finish. My optician diagnosed a cataract which i was advised to have removed. An appt was made at Chec and I attended for pre-assessment. Further eye tests were done and I was told I did not have a cataract. I was sent away and I returned to my optician who retested me and said I do have a cataract. My eye is very blurred and glasses do not correct it. I received a call from Chec wanting to give me a second opinion. I reluctantly agreed and then received a link a few days later to make a further appt. I did that but then 2 days later I received another link wanting me to make an appt. As I already had an appt, I rang them but was keep getting told to refer to the link. I wasnt able to speak to anyone because the call kept cutting me off. I was receiving up to 3 links a day asking me to make further appts. I tried making a further appt via the links but it was saying sorry there is a problem each time. When I rang the number it cut me off again. I again called the number on the bank Holiday Monday 5th May to be told they were closed until 27th DECEMBER. By this time I had lost all confidence in the company so will not be attending again

I am now onto the 3rd appoinment about the same thing.
I received a request to make an appointment, following a scan, earlier today, as advised by the person doing the scan, via text.
I logged-in as advised. It would not let me make an appointment. It then said that I had to wait a month.
I phone up and and put in a queue of 10. It takes 10mins to get to 9th place. aaaargh I hung up, I simply do not have the time to waste.
I the try the 'CHAT' process, It took several minutes to get someone to get an agent to respond. then each message takes far to long to be responeded to. Why? the agent is on several Chats at the same time. (hmm how to wind-up the caller in one easy step).
The 1st appointment was held-up for a month, due to process....aaaargh
I then arranged with agent for her to call back. Someone did. But next suitable appointment at the local surgey was 20+ days away....aaaaargh.

What a load of bobloks - I will now be going private...

I have been 12 months since my last eye appoinment. I could not afford the safety glasses at that time and also had symptoms of a torn - retina (been there before). When I got the funds, 8 months later I needed another eye test. The optician, then could not get a consistent result from one eye. Hence this protracted process. I cannot see clearly out of my left eye. But no-one at CHEC appears to care...aaaaargh The process do not work! They simply wind-up people like me....aaaargh

First appointment was wrongly booked with "wrong" person and had to be rebooked. First impression was of small univiting, shabby premises. Receptionist was harassed but helpful. She e,planned she would book my appointments as usually done from central booking which didn't always work. I have had 3 appointments so far since January with no outcome. The final app was 28th April, but was cancelled due to "Health and safety issues". This was by a voice message. I had arranged a lift as drops were to be administered. I will not be making another app as went to Spec savers yesterday (sunday) who did all the tests on their superior state of the art equipment and refered me to the Eye hospital.

Horrendous service, avoid at all costs

Very unprofessional, extremely rude, the lack talking manners.
I went to my appointment and they wanted to change my procedure to something I was not comfortable with, something they should have informed me about prior to getting there, and I had to get it rescheduled (wasting my time and money including the person that I came along with.
As a process, one must go with someone to these appointments, and mine cancelled the last minute and I immediately called to notify them. The person that I spoke with first, said they were going to cancel the referral apparently I cancelled 3 times. I turned up to my appointment and these people wanted to do my procedure without sedation which we had previously agreed. The woman spoke to me in an inquisitive manner whilst skipping and avoiding to address the day I attended my appointment and they wanted to change. I asked to speak to the manager or supervisor and this person said they were not around and I cannot speak to someone else.
I hung up and called to speak to someone else. This person was something else. She told me that "you had 2 months to find someone to come with me" that if I was so desperate for the appointment I can get someone else". I asked if she knows about my life like that? and she could not answer the question.
I decided to hang the phone up and try and call someone else, the same person answered and this person was really looking for a fight. Something is terribly wrong with the people they hire to be in the position to speak with people.

Avoid this company. Ask your GP to refer you somewhere else. And believe the reviews.

Awful service, unhelpful, rude and obstructive. Impossible to get the phone answered, so went to online chat. This was just to rearrange an appointment. I was asked if I was going to attend or not, because they can just close off the appointment and give it to someone else. No courtesy, nothing resembling customer service at all. They are crafty and book 2, 1 to see you and another for the results. Absolute nonsense, they're just draining funds from the NHS. I shall go back to my optician and look for another company.

I had an appointment at CHEC Stockport earlier today that lasted under 2 minutes. In that time, the person I saw read a long letter about a previous appointment,looked at the medication I'm taking and somehow managed to establish the current health of my eyes without actually examining them. He absolutely couldn't be bothered and had an awful attitude. The nurses and reception team are amazing so I'm sad to write this but I feel very let down by today's appointment.

Pity there isn't a minus star score facility. Even 1 star is too much. CHEC used to be good but recently I'm finding it pretty appalling to deal with. The medical side is fine, no problems. It's the aftermath and administration and reporting to patients that is abysmal. The complaints procedure ( an oxymoron if ever ) takes ages, no one can ever be contacted properly and in person, the webchat service and telephone enquiries system are so limited in scope as to what they can deal with, it's not worth the effort even trying. A letter of complaint to the CEO delivered by hand to their HQ is so so so slowly proceeding I think through CHEC processes. I warned them I would make a post like this. I am actively seeking referral to another body that can do the periodic screening for an eye condition.

The service offered by Chec is in theroy brilliant, but in reality fails to meet patient needs due to slow, inaccurate and vague communication. Using their chat function with their customer service team is not helpful and the people you converse with are unable to give any detail at all so you are fobbed off with very vague responses. It seems like a check box excerise rathr than a tool to add value.

I was given an appointment over the phone for Chec eye clinic Basingstoke. I was told to get a taxi there as my minor opp proceedure would be done on the same day and i would not be able to drive my car. On the day of my appointment today i phoned Chec on their main phone number and asked again do i need a taxi to go to this appointment their answer was again yes and the procedure would be today. My taxi came and took me to Chec in Basingstoke. The lady on reception told me no procedure of a minor opp would be done today and that their doctor will only have a look at my eye. So as a poor unemployed person i had wasted a lot of money on a taxi there and back home. Now eating beans on toast again for another 4 days. At the appointment i was given the new appointment for the minor opp which was good. Then Chec sent a text to my phone offering me 4 different days to book my minor opp none of which were the date i was already given at the appointment. I had to ask the taxi driver to turn round and go back there lucky for me we were only 300 yards away. He took me back. I explained to the reception lady i just got a text from chec offering me 4 different days for a appointment and they are all different to the day and time you have just given to me. She said don,t worry about the text appointments text to me just stick with the appointment that she had given to me. Ok i said your admin services are beyound a joke. I then left to get back in my taxi to be taken home.
The whole service has been beyound a joke and expensive to me and my minor opp procedure has not even been done. Unfortunatly i have to go back in a few weeks for the minor opp. Disgusting service the left hand does not know what the right hands doing. I think the place needs re managing. Terrible service.

Shocking service. This company should be struck off. They made me an appointment for an endoscopy, sent over all the paperwork by email then 2 hours later cancelled saying it was a system error. Was told no appointments available and will contact me when one becomes available. Received a letter the next day saying they couldn’t get in touch with me and unless I contact them in 14 days, my appointment is no longer needed. I would feel embarrassed working for this company. Incompetence at the highest level.

this company is disgusting, i wrote a review on google and it was deleted less than 24 hours later, so ill write it on here, my mother who attends all her appointments on time is always waiting at least an hour to be seen, she is told this is because the doctor train is delayed but as my mother sees this same doctor majority of her appointments its the same excuse, i then attended a few appointments with her and it was the same excuse, dont the staff know i can check the train delays, so im aware that this excuse is a lie. My poor elderly mother is made to wait on the most uncomfortable chairs we have ever sat on for a long period of time, the shortest waiting time she has ever waited is 40 minutes and the longest has been 4 hours. The staff do not care at all that majority of patients are all waiting such a long time, what is the point of the appointment time might as well all turn up when we want as we will have to wait anyway. There have been many times my mother has left and rescheduled. It's such a shame our NHS dont realise what they are paying for!!!

CHEC Basingstoke -
- 2 appointment letter sent for 2 different appointments, all in separate envelopes.
- No way to speak by phone to someone as the options don't match this query and phone cuts out
- via online chat and a call back, found out I didn't need 2 appointments but had missed an earlier one that I was never told about.
- the person with whom I spoke didn't know if the appointment was for a problem in my left eye post-surgery or re surgery on my right eye
- I pushed for an online consultation with a Dr which I got. I needed to be seen in person so one of the appointments sent was confirmed, the other cancelled
- I was then sent another appointment with no explanation. I ignored it. I was then texted to remind me to book it
- without acting on my own initiative, I would be holding 3 appointments unnecessarily.
What a shambles - a costly, frustrating shambles.

CHEC Worcester. I have been seen by CHEC since early this year, 3 monthly appointments for possible glaucoma.
The first two went ok although I got the impression most of the staff don't want to be there. The real problems arose when I tried to book two follow up appointments, one to se a technician for photos and peripheral vision tests followed by seeing the doctor for pressure tests and further discussion. Apparently CHEC will not allow the receptionists to book 2 consecutive appointments. I have been given various reasons for this which don't stack up and when queried with the doctor they just shrugged their shoulders.
After my last visits, which involve two journeys of 28 mile round trips due to not being able to have consecutive appointments, the dooctor asked me to book for another three month appointment. The receptionist told me that are not taking bookings that far in advance! I explained the doctor had asked me to do this and was still told no. I commented that this was unacceptable and CHEC needed to sort their appointment system out, the receptioniost then accused me of being rude so I left with out an appointment.
From previous experience it is impossible to get through to book appointments by phone, I sat there for 30 minutes the last time I tried and resorted to the chat facility to make the appointment. I was till unable to book consecutive appointments, the person on the end of the line insisting I had a photo and periferal vision test and a follow up phone call. This I did as I had no other choice, I attended the first part and whenn the phone call came through I was asked by the doctor why I had asked for a phone call! I explained the situation and was told I had to attend the clinic anyway.
There seems to be no official route to get out of this endless mess with CHEC, there is no obvious way to complain to the NHS so I have asked my original referring optician what to do and await his answer.

I had a follow up appointment booked after the initial appointment to do preliminary tests. I had asked for a phone call for follow up as I have care responsibilities and have to pay to get someone in to look after my mother together with the cost of a taxi there and back. After tests the ophthalmologist stated he needed me to come in so I paid the £35 for a carer plus the £30 there and back taxi - however there was a slight delay of 10 minutes getting there so I did a courtesy call to let them know I’d be a few minutes late. They spoke to the ophthalmologist said he couldn’t see me and I’d have to rearrange as clinic was full. I said surely if it’s so full someone whose already waiting can step into my spot and I’d take there’s one or two appointments later. But they said no. So now I have to book yet again at a cost of another £65. I am a pensioner and just don’t have that sort of money any longer to throw away. Total cost £130 for a 10 minute appointment.
Very very disappointed because up till now this company had been quite good. I’m also struggling to get a follow up appointment as they’ve reduced opening hours on the central no and I was 30 in the queue. Then I tried chat and got the initial hello I’m Diane please bear with me but then nothing for over 30 minutes.