[lettie]

This sounds like it stems from the patient choice agenda. All patients now have a right to choose where they will be treated and which consultant they wish to be treated by. It is probably your surgery's way of letting you choose. It seems a bit of a rigmarole to go through when all you want is an appointment to see a consultant. My advice would be that if you have seen a consultant before and are happy with that consultant, also if your problem is one that the consultant is aware of then just ring the hospital switchboard and ask to speak to his/her secretary. You can always tell the secretary that you were told to ring if there were any further problems. This won't get you any further up the waiting list but it will get you an appointment. Bear in mind that waiting lists for an outpatient appointment are nowhere near as long as they used to be due to having to reach targets.