Who to contact between appointments

Appointments are the visible part of a service and a small fraction of it. Most of the year happens in between, and what exists in between varies enormously between providers who otherwise look identical.

• A named person who knows the case, reachable directly.
• A shared inbox or portal with a stated response time.
• A general helpline unconnected to the treating clinician.
• Nothing until the next scheduled appointment.

Those four produce very different years. They are also rarely described at sign-up, because a service that is choosing between them knows which ones sound better.

The medicine was the same. The difference between the two providers was entirely what happened in the seven weeks between appointments.

Illustrative composite