Your comments

I attended the clinic yesterday and even though I spent over 2.5 hours waiting overall the staff are doing a great job trying to see to everyone & this is a great service. What sat uncomfortably with me though was I witnessed at least two women coming into the clinic (looked like they had rushed from work) to be told that the clinic had reached capacity. This is understandable given the number of people attending the clinic but when the opening hours of future clinics were explained you could see the concern on their face. Both asked are you open on Saturdays? And the response was (very politely) yes but for men only I am afraid. I understand having men only and women only clinics may encourage attendance given the nature of the service but when the majority of the population work 9-5 Mon-Fri why are you only giving men the chance to attend on a Saturday? When the women only slot is during the day on a Thursday?

I am upset as it has taken me some time to finally arrange a appointment with time to talk. I went in a was handed a form which I filled out and told I would get a phone call within 3 days.
I got a call the following day letting me know my 1sr appointment would be over the phone and given the date and time.
I received a letter with a questionnaire to fill in. I also revived a email with the same questionnaire, which I filled in.
I then revived a voice mail the morning of my appointment stating that it had been cancelled due to the person who was going to talk to me being ill.
Now I understand people can't help being ill but there must be more staff there who can do a phone call.
I wasn't given a new time or date for another appointment either.
This has annoyed me as I it's taken me alot to actually take the step to approach and seek help from time to talk.

But I am now wondering if they are actually going to be any help at all. If they cant be bothered to stick to appointment times.

My daughter was referred to this centre from our GP, after showing worrying signs of mental heath, anxiety and concerns for her own safety! WHAT A JOKE THIS PLACE IS!!!
We was told the appointment would be 45 minutes but there was no rush!! After 1/2 hour the lady started to look at her watch, then decided to start printing information off that we had already been given from our GP, which I had explained to her, she just continued to print off and said just take them. I presume so she could say she had done something!! She told us she would have a meeting and would let us know the outcome. She phoned the next day to say it wasn't what she first thought and would be in touch! We didn't hear from them again. A while later while my daughter was at the GPs she said it showed on her records that the Erith centre had diagnosed her with adjustment disorder/personality disorder!! We was told they would discharge her as she no longer needed their help!!! A year on my daughter has continued to struggle and tried to take her own life!! A referral was again sent to the centre from our GP after my daughter saw a psychiatrist for another condition that she has, they have concerns that her condition isn't being addressed. she received a letter from the centre to say that she would get a call that would last 1/2 hour!!! The call lasted 5 minutes and all the woman said was why would you want to take your life!!! We was told by our GP that it would probably be best to see a private psychiatrist to try and get help quicker, which last week we did!! You guessed it my daughter has been WRONGLY DIAGNOISED SHAME ON YOU!!! My daughter has been given the wrong medication and care due to your negligence!!! No wonder she isn't improving without the correct support.

Hi, I am a patient of Oxleas and have an appointment about every 8 weeks. For each appointment I receive an appointment letter. I then receive a reminder latter, for my appointment on 14th August I have received a reminder letter today. Why do you keep sending reminder letters ? The cost of sending a letter is not trivial, especially when the total number of letters sent out by the NHS is taken into account. Medicine is an evidence based science and there is no evidence that I have ever missed an appointment, so why keep sending me reminders ? The NHS is chronically starved of cash and the mental health services are the poor relation within the overall NHS cash provision. I do not receive reminder letter from the other NHS services I regularly use, so why does Oxleas send these reminders ? What is particularly irksome is when the original and reminder letter has different information and this requires a phone call to sort out. I have, on 2 occasions, had the situation when the 2 letters contained different information and when I phoned to sort the problem, I've found that neither letter contained the correct information ! I would point out that the letter I received today is 11 days before the appointment - plenty of time for me to forget about the appointment if I am that way inclined.

I have two incredibly vulnerable female friends who have been referred to this service after displaying severe anxiety and panic after sustained traumatic experiences - and come off WORSE as a result of their assessments and subsequent treatment. Both were diagnosed as having Boarderline Personality Disorder when neither of them actually display the majority of symptoms, then immediately discharged from the service just having had that bomb dropped on their heads. Either the service is run by idiots or sadists and I'm genuinely unsure as to which would frighten me more. How you can just drop an extremely fragile and frightened woman not once, but twice is completely beyond belief. I feel sorry for all the people discharged by your service who don't have friends to pick them back up after you drop them.

I would like to give a big thank you to Caryn, she was extremely professional, helpful and friendly from the first procedure to the dressing change. Great service, thank you very much Caryn and the rest of the team!