Outpatient booking service

If you have any questions about your outpatient appointment or need to make changes, our friendly booking team is here to help.

About our service

The Outpatient Booking team at Stockport NHS Foundation Trust plays a vital role in coordinating and managing outpatient appointments across our services. We are dedicated to ensuring that patients are offered timely, accurate, and accessible appointments. We aim to support the smooth delivery of outpatient care.

Our team works closely with clinical departments, administrative services, and patients. We aim to schedule and manage appointments in a way that meets individual needs while making the best use of available clinical resources. We understand that coming to hospital can sometimes be a stressful experience. Therefore, we aim to make the booking process as straightforward and reassuring as possible.

We are committed to the Trust’s core values of Compassion, Accountability, Respect, and Excellence:

Compassion – We treat every patient with kindness and empathy, understanding the importance of clear, sensitive communication.

Accountability – We take responsibility for ensuring that appointments are booked correctly and queries are resolved promptly and efficiently.

Respect – We value and respect each person’s time, choices, and circumstances, working to accommodate individual needs wherever possible.

Excellence – We continuously review and improve our processes to provide the highest standard of service, helping reduce waiting times and missed appointments.

Our team also supports the Trust’s efforts to reduce non-attendance (DNA) rates by validating referrals, confirming appointments, and ensuring patients have the right information at the right time.

How to use our service

• Your referral will be received into the Outpatient Booking Team, where it will be sent for triage.
• During triage a clinician will review your referral to confirm the urgency, and whether the referral is appropriate.
• A member of staff will make an appointment for you considering any clinical advice, and an appointment will be sent out to you via a link to your mobile phone, where you can access the Patient Portal or your NHS app. If you do not have a mobile you will get a letter to your address. For more detail about this, and information to better manage your appointments, communication, and experience, please visit Patient Portal – Stockport NHS Foundation Trust
• If the appointment date and time is within three weeks, the appointment will be made by phone. Therefore it is important that we are always informed about any changes to your personal details.
• The hospital has an Appointment Reminder Service that will remind patients of the appointment date and time. This service will offer you flexibility to rebook and cancel your appointment.
• If your appointment is for a telephone or video consultation, this will be detailed in your letter. Some outpatient appointments are now online. For more information about our online appointments see  our Attend Anywhere appointments page.

On the day of your appointment

You might find it helpful to prepare some questions or write down a list of things you’d like to discuss during your appointment. For further information on how to prepare for your appointment, you may visit https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/hospitals/going-into-hospital/outpatients-and-day-patients/

If you are unable to understand discussions around your care, it is essential that you bring an unpaid representative (family member or friend) with you to your appointment, or that they are available on the phone to contact. Patients who lack capacity to make decisions around their care will require a best interest decision to be made on their behalf. This can be done very quickly and will not delay treatment.

Our expertise

The Outpatient Booking Team have been accredited with the Customer Service Excellence Award.

Our Choose and Book working practices were recently recognised as an example of ‘Good Practice’ for others by NHS Connecting for Health, which is a government body. Our department is committed to the further development of the staff, which we feel will benefit outpatients and we have staff who have studied/achieved:-

• Masters in Health and Social Care Management
• Accredited Managers Award
• NVQ Business and Admin
• Professional Development Certificate in Management Studies

If you require any further information please contact us.