AN URGENT meeting has been called to discuss ‘distressing’ delays to the post which are causing ‘confusion and fear’, including for worried hospital patients.
Worcester MP Tom Collins and Cllr Sarah Murray are due to attend the Royal Mail Delivery Office in Worcester on Friday to discuss their shared and continuing concerns over postal delays.
Hospital letters coming weeks late
Complaints have included urgent NHS letters for hospital appointments arriving weeks late. The lateness of the post has forced Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester, to rely on other forms of communication to circumvent the issue and keep in contact with patients.
MEETING: Worcester MP Tom Collins is set to attend the meeting in Worcester on Friday with Cllr Sarah Murray over delays to Royal Mail post (Image: Supplied)
Mr Collins, the city’s Labour MP, said: “People in Worcester are suffering from extremely late deliveries of letters and this is causing a lot of people distress, confusion and fear about missing appointments, payment deadlines or important news.
“Royal Mail promised me a plan to get on top of this and it has not come – this is simply not good enough – so I am directly visiting the delivery office to press them on their failures.
“I am also looking at ways to making their performance highly visible – so we can all have a straight story about the situation in real time.
“Getting a flyer about delivery changes adds insult to injury – when current deliveries are falling far behind their proposed reduced service. We all deserve much better.
“I’ll update local residents following my planned meeting with Royal Mail this coming Friday.”
Meeting at depot in Warndon, Worcester
Cllr Murray, a Liberal Democrat councillor for St Nicholas in Warndon Villages, Worcester, has spoken to several residents about their growing concerns.
LATE: Cllr Sarah Murray has raised the issue of late post from Royal Mail on several occasions and will be at the urgent meeting (Image: Submitted)
She said: “Residents have been incredibly patient, but they now need more than reassurance – they need clear answers and a credible plan to restore a reliable postal service.
“The concerns first came to me from residents in Warndon Villages, but I’m now hearing from people across Worcester and parts of Worcestershire who are reporting unacceptable delays to important post, including hospital letters, test results, appointment letters and financial documents.
Friday’s meeting needs to be the start of a solution. Residents deserve honesty about what’s gone wrong, what Royal Mail is doing to fix it, and when they can expect a reliable service to be restored.”
We have previously reported how leaders at Worcestershire Royal Hospital say they are using texts and other forms of communication to get in touch with patients about appointments.
READ MORE: Worcester hospital responds over delayed Royal Mail post
A spokesperson for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said in a previous statement: “We are aware of concerns around the reliability of the postal service, and we are expanding the range of options we have for communicating with our patients including text messaging and digital communications.”
READ MORE: Royal Mail anger over post delays at new Worcester estate
The Royal Mail has defended its record, saying 92 per cent of their letters arrive on time and they are investing £500 million nationally over the next five years to make deliveries more reliable.
Derek Barnard, 66, of Crowcroft Drive at Regency Gate, off Bromyard Road in St John’s, Worcester, has previously raised concerns about the post and said his own experience did not reflect the 92 per cent figure shared by Royal Mail.
A condolence card from his vet arrived five weeks after the death of his beloved dog Barney. He says he increasingly relies on the NHS app, partly because it is more convenient and partly because his post is so unreliable.
We have approached Royal Mail for a comment.