DELAYS in follow-up appointments for patients treated in Gwent hospitals are being investigated by health watchdogs and NHS bosses.

Aneurin Bevan Community Health Council (CHC), the independent patients’ watchdog, is asking people for their experiences of delays across all specialties, to try to measure the extent of the problem and identify reasons.

Concerns about delays, such as the monitoring and management of diabetes and eye conditions are “routinely raised” with the CHC, according to its bimonthly report to the health board.

And Gwent’s local medical committee, the representative body for the area’s GPs, is also concerned about follow-up appointment delays, and posters encouraging patients to get in touch with the CHC if they have worries, are being displayed in surgeries.

Follow-up appointments, states the CHC report, are often “vital” to the monitoring and management of a range of conditions.

It continues: “As well as putting the health of patients potentially at risk, such delays cause great distress to patients when they are told that regular checks are important to their well-being.”

The health board is looking at the issue of follow-up appointments as part of a programme to overhaul its entire outpatient system.

Its own report on the matter acknowledges that the patient experience “can be poor with some long waiting times, unnecessary follow-ups, car parking issues and poor booking processes.”

“The health board appears to have higher than average referral rates into secondary care in comparison to the rest of Wales,”

states in own report.

“There are currently long waiting times in a number of specialties, with waiting lists at their highest point since Referral to Treatment Time (RTT) reporting was introduced.

“Backlog follow-up waiting lists have also built up over the last few years in a number of specialties.

“These factors have contributed to increasing numbers of patients failing to meet RTT targets, and clinical governance concerns surrounding patients exceeding planned follow-up times.”

The report identifies orthopaedics as a big issue regarding follow-up rates, with a high rate of follow-ups due to long term monitoring of joint replacements.

To fill in a questionnaire on hospital follow-ups, visit www.- wales.nhs.uk/sitesplus/901/que stionnaire/783 or call Aneurin Bevan CHC on 01633 838516 for more information.