Eliza, I totally agree. It is a bit of a mad scheme especially when you consider that many elderly people are not computer literate, might not have any family with one and possibly have never had to run a bank account let alone anything else my mother being one of those unfortunately. So all of this is alien to her.

I had moved in to help her with bereavement and as I had a laptop I decided to go online not knowing about this way of booking but thought it could be very handy for general things. She has been suffering with a bowel problem which is progressively getting worse and in a lot of pain her GP arranged for this 'choose and book' facility which was a silly assumption to make as she knew the situation with my mother's mobility etc. It was easy for me to get on to eventually and up came a couple of choices, this was in January. One was a hospital that she had a bad experience with previously plus it was where my father and her sister passed away, two others which she could not possibly get to because of mobility problems and the only hospital option that she was ok with had a booking availability in latter part of April. But as I thought it best to book that instead of risking not having one at all we opted for that. Since then despite booking on line she has received two cancellations which would now take her to July! So much for choose and book! At 86 it is too much to deal with. Once a booking has been chosen it should not be cancelled by them once that booking has been made.

Anyway we have been trying to chase the GP (who is on yet another holiday) to try to bring it closer because her condition is becoming more severe and unmanageable. Actually the health care she is receiving in general is really poor not just the choose and book issue but that is another story.

What really annoys me is that they tell you to think before A&E but is it any wonder that people have to go that route instead? They should know that the older generation tend not to want to 'cause' anyone any bother and are less likely to want to 'cause trouble and inconvenience' to the emergency services or anyone else. This system is not elderly friendly at all and needs rethinking through.