Maternity consultation blunder as some responses go missing

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Maternity consultation "blunder" as some responses go missing in the post

http://www.rhyljournal.co.uk/news/15374 ... -post.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A HEALTH board has apologised after it emerged that some responses to its maternity services consultation had been lost.

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board became aware - through their own postman - that some views to the women’s and maternity services consultation had not been delivered by Royal Mail.

The issue relates to correspondence via the board’s freepost address with the postcode RSZZ-SGXY-TSEZ; It is believed that the code wasn’t coming up on the Royal Mail system, so the sorting office were unsure where it was meant to be delivered to.

The consultation closed on October 5. The public were asked to give their views on four options - for services to stay as they are at hospitals across North Wales; temporary changes to maternity at Wrexham Maelor Hospital; Ysbyty Gwynedd or Glan Clwyd Hospital.

A spokesperson from BCUHB said: “We are disappointed by this, The Royal Mail is investigating how this came about and we have raised a formal complaint with them.

“This only affects some responses and we do not believe these to be large numbers.

“Since the problem was identified and put right, we have received around 20 items of correspondence to the affected address, seven of these being hard copies of previously emailed submissions.

"In contrast, we have had over 3,500 responses via the freepost address for the questionnaire returns which is not affected at all, and by email, telephone and petition.”

Darren Millar, Shadow Minister for Health and AM for Clwyd West, said “this blunder has to be seen to be believed.”

He added: “One of the most important consultations for the future of health services in north Wales in recent times - and someone’s lost weeks’ worth of responses.

“It’s not acceptable and those who’ve taken the time to make their feelings known will rightly despair."

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We apologise to customers affected by issues involving the Freepost address contract between Royal Mail and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.

“We are treating this of the utmost importance and we are investigating at a senior level with Health Board officials.”

Anyone worried that their comments might not have reached BCUHB, can telephone the board free of charge on 0800 169 3142.

[terry1974]

I blame this partially on Royal Mail -in that in the past Freepost addresses and putting on the license number handwritten was a simple few letters and numbers
e.g FREEPOST (SW5007) or FREEPOST (PHQ5) now there is this long string of 16 letters split into fours with hyphens between e.g (RLSY-RTFR-RXCJ) etc etc
there is bound to be folks posting letters writing it down incorrectly,or getting letters in the wrong order in this string of gobbledygook
why not just go back to easier licensing codes?