The length of hospital waiting lists is of great concern to everyone across the UK and the situation is now being tackled by University Hospitals Dorset.

Over the last two years, many non-emergency operations and procedures across the NHS had to be cancelled or postponed because of Covid-19. The trust says it is working hard to prioritise its lists and will be contacting patients waiting for appointments at the Royal Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch hospitals via text message or letter to obtain further details.

If you receive one of these messages, please respond so the hospitals can help you with your care. They say they would like to assure you that:

• their communication will only ever ask questions relating to your care
• they will never ask for bank details or reference to money or payment
• they will never ask you for your name or address, however you will be able to update your details if they are not correct
• their message will include a unique pin and we will ask you to input your date of birth only to log in
• a business reply address in Macclesfield will be supplied – this is where their team are collating your responses

Ophthalmology patients are among those being sent messages.

Minnie Klepacz, matron for ophthalmology, said: “We know how long some patients have been waiting and we know how hard this can be. We are determined to do everything we can to help work through our waiting list as quickly as possible. Contacting patients digitally will enable us to do this efficiently so please do respond when you receive a message from University Hospitals Dorset.”