Related Articles
After discovering a lump behind his ear last year, Brian Menzie, 81, from Glencraig, was diagnosed with stage-two melanoma and has been receiving treatment ever since.
However, he says he almost missed a potentially life-saving hospital scan at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, if it hadn’t been for his doctor calling his landline.
He said: “That letter had important information on what I had to do and what I couldn’t do before I got the scan.
“[Without the phone call and letter] I would’ve gone over, and they would’ve refused me. Because I wouldn’t have known I couldn’t eat, and I would’ve had a cup of coffee and some toast.”
Brian, who used to work for the post office himself, says he thinks the delay was due to severe disruption to Royal Mail deliveries in parts of Fife over the Christmas period.
“It was a load of mail we got on one day, and I said to the postie ‘What’s happening?’ The boy says it’s a shambles, they’re bringing people into the Lochgelly office to get rid of the mail that’s been lying for two weeks.
“They blame Christmas. It’s absolutely unbelievable,” he said.
He said in general his generation is being left behind, and priority is not being given to ensure important health information is properly communicated through letters.
He added: “I think we’re getting forgotten about. We don’t have smartphones and computers, so we can get mixed up sometimes.
“A letter written is important to us so we can read and digest it.”
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We apologise for Mr Menzies’s experience. We know how important NHS letters are, particularly when they relate to hospital appointments, and we take any reports of delay extremely seriously.
“Whilst the Lochgelly team worked very hard to keep mail moving ahead of Christmas, we acknowledge that some addresses experienced delays of one or two days in our peak period.
“The vast majority of mail is delivered on time, but where disruption occurs, we work to resolve it as quickly as possible.”
