AFTER an hour in a telephone queue, one hour in traffic and another hour in a hospital waiting room, 11-year-old Caroline Hudson was ready to see her doctor.

But thanks to an error with a new £15.7m electronic booking system, he was not there, and neither was any record of Caroline’s appointment.

The Drayton Primary School pupil and her mother Ruth arrived at the hospital last week, ready for a 9am consultation with a plastic surgeon.

Caroline has a small lump under her tongue which may need to be removed.

But after a lengthy wait at the oral and maxillofacial surgery department at the John Radcliffe Hospital, the mother and daughter, who had travelled from Drayton through the morning rush-hour traffic, were told the appointment had been cancelled.

Mother-of-four Mrs Hudson said: “It was ridiculous. We’d been trying since December to get an appointment.

“I spent an hour in the phone queue, being told I was number 29, then number 28, only to be cut off then having to start again.

“They sent me two letters with the same date on.

“Then when we got there there was no record of the appointment.”

Hospital chiefs brought in the new Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system at the John Radcliffe, Churchill and Horton hospitals in early December.

Its introduction was delayed twice in November as the trust tried to prepare and train staff.

At the time of its introduction, patients reported a host of problems, including ambulances queueing outside accident and emergency at the John Radcliffe at the weekend as staff struggled to book patients in.

Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) Trust also suspended its parking charges for three days as patient appointments overran by hours.

The initial problems were reportedly fixed within a few days, but it recently emerged there are still significant problems with patients trying to call the Patient Contact Centre, to book appointments.

An OUH spokesman said it was not known when the system would be running without delays, but it could take up to three months.

Mrs Hudson said her daughter’s appointment has now been set for January 26. She said: “Caroline may not be the most crucial case – but they need to know this system is not working. Something needs to be done.”

The £15.7m database, paid for by the Department of Health, is designed to contain patient records including medical history, details of past operations and appointments on one computer database.

A trust spokesman: “We’re sorry that Mrs Hudson has experienced difficulties in booking her appointment, and for any distress that this may have caused.

“Additional training is in place to help our staff get up to speed with the new IT system.

“We are aware of the problems some patients have had making appointments, and we are adapting our processes in response to these initial difficulties.

“This is one of the largest operational changes that the trust has undertaken and, once fully implemented, will bring many benefits through having improved recording and access to patients’ medical information.”

The spokesman added: “There appears to have been some confusion around the address of Mrs Hudson, and we apologise that in this case the cancellation letter and offer of a new appointment was sent to the wrong address. We have now confirmed the new appointment date with Mrs Hudson.”