NHS - Yet another tale...

[Fen]

Well that was fun... My visit to see the surgeon.

Turned up at the hospital, clinic 5, at 9:45am for my 10am appointment.

Was told that it wasn't at clinic 5, but at clinic 4. Went to clinic 4...

Was told that it wasn't at clinic 4, but at clinic 2. Went to clinic 2...

Got there and was told that my appointment had been cancelled and I was supposed to be at clinic 5 on the 6th July!

I've had no letter, no phonecall or anything telling me about the cancellation.

And the woman on the desk just passed me on to someone else who in turn was really pi$$ed off at the women on the desk.

[bench_ubbster]

"Computer says no"

[parisian]

Buggeration with extra bugger on top
Shouldn't happen Fen given the plethora of communication methods currently available.
Do I see a North South divide here? You and Tanya pretty well pi$$ed off; Clive and I pretty well satisfied -- the evidence is building

[ermintrude]

Almost every appointment gets cancelled there, I usually get put back 2 weeks to a month and sometimes the cancelled appointment gets cancelled again I cant understand why your Friday appointment has moved to Monday though, as they are usually fixed days, Mr x will have a Friday morning clinic for y etc, unless he runs the same clinic twice a week. They did rearrange the system about a year ago and my clinic moved from Fridays to Mondays. Tbh you're lucky its only moved 3 days and not a month but it does make me wonder if they havent made some other balls up... Never, *ever* cancel under *any* circumstances as it will be a 6 month wait for the next free slot...

Oh, and a word of warning: *never* get there early...

Oh well, good luck for Monday then. I had my tests yesterday and I dont have cancer whooppeee!!!!!!

[Clive]

Almost every appointment gets cancelled there, I usually get put back 2 weeks to a month and sometimes the cancelled appointment gets cancelled again I cant understand why your Friday appointment has moved to Monday though, as they are usually fixed days, Mr x will have a Friday morning clinic for y etc, unless he runs the same clinic twice a week. They did rearrange the system about a year ago and my clinic moved from Fridays to Mondays. Tbh you're lucky its only moved 3 days and not a month but it does make me wonder if they havent made some other balls up... Never, *ever* cancel under *any* circumstances as it will be a 6 month wait for the next free slot...

Oh, and a word of warning: *never* get there early...

Oh well, good luck for Monday then. I had my tests yesterday and I dont have cancer whooppeee!!!!!!

Good on you, Erm. Well done!

[Clive]

.... and wherever I've been and Judy too, we are always weighed within 20 minutes of our appointment time. Doesn't matter what we are wearing - the only function in our Target Tickbox Health Culture is that the appointment has officially commenced, even though we may see the consultant some time after.

[Fen]

I had my tests yesterday and I dont have cancer whooppeee!!!!!!

Excellent news. Beers on you then

[ermintrude]

.... and wherever I've been and Judy too, we are always weighed within 20 minutes of our appointment time. Doesn't matter what we are wearing - the only function in our Target Tickbox Health Culture is that the appointment has officially commenced, even though we may see the consultant some time after.

Yup thats the one, BP and weight, then a 2 hour wait

[ermintrude]

Good on you, Erm. Well done!

Haha yes, I tried extra hard Its just a cyst that has calcified and fused to my skin. Bloddy parathyroid, it will be the death of me

[ermintrude]

I had my tests yesterday and I dont have cancer whooppeee!!!!!!

Excellent news. Beers on you then

Ah I dunno bout that, beer increases risk of cancer, eh... Still, reduces chance Ill get heart disease Pass the beer then, and Ill skip the fish & chips... oh wait, I need my omega 3!

[lisadb]

Great new Erm ! Lisa.

[Fire_Monkey]

Good to hear Erm!

[Baz94]

Great news Erm xx I ave beeen in that boat... not nioce is it!
glad you got the O.K. xxx

The NHS... No Health Service

[parisian]

I had my tests yesterday and I dont have cancer whooppeee!!!!!!

Bloody well done Erm, have a celebratory fag
Parathyroids eh, who needs 'em?

[Wheelman]

Good news there Erm


I have to say that I spent some time last year in Kent and Sussex Hospital which does not have the best of reputations, and have no real complaints.

Yes there were things that were sometimes irritating, lack of Nurses so the poor dears ended up running around like maniacs for one, but of course when you are stuck there for any length of time you can get a bit tetchy and start to notice all the little things

Appointments in out patients averaged out ok, on one occasion I didn't even have time to sit down before being called (and we weren't late!)this was however balanced by a two hour wait when I saw the Senior consultant. He apparently took as much time as he needed to deal with each patient properly which meant that the appointments schedule tended to run a bit behind.

There were also problems when I had a pump fitted to the wound as the District nurses had not yet been trained how to change the dressings and it looked as though I would have to make a trip to the hospital every other day. This was however rapidly sorted out with the tissue viability nurse coming in to train them how to do it, so I ended up with her demonstrating on me to most of the local nurses

Does this support the North/South divide??

[ermintrude]

I had my tests yesterday and I dont have cancer whooppeee!!!!!!

Bloody well done Erm, have a celebratory fag
Parathyroids eh, who needs 'em?

Er, well not me, I ain't got one anymore Had a lump in that too so they whipped it out, but it was benign. Third time round now *eyes roll*, I am no longer scared of ominous lumps...

[ermintrude]

Appointments in out patients averaged out ok, on one occasion I didn't even have time to sit down before being called (and we weren't late!)this was however balanced by a two hour wait when I saw the Senior consultant. He apparently took as much time as he needed to deal with each patient properly which meant that the appointments schedule tended to run a bit behind.

D'you mean *when* you saw him or *to* see him? I think thats what Clive meant, these days you are seen pretty much immediately to be weighed/have your BP done, but thats just so they can tick the box that all patients are seen in xxx time. The weight/BP thing is (usually) pretty irrelevant and just an excuse for the fact you have that 2 hour wait to see the actual consultant. They would hardly ever have bothered with the pre-appointment testing a few years ago before government guidelines on waiting times had to be met.

If you meant you saw him *for* two hours then crikey! Thats one hell of an appointment!

[Hotblack]

I had my tests yesterday and I dont have cancer whooppeee!!!!!!

Good for you Erm. Glad to hear it.

[Hotblack]

Well that was fun...
I've had no letter, no phonecall or anything telling me about the cancellation.

And the woman on the desk just passed me on to someone else who in turn was really pi$$ed off at the women on the desk.

That's bad. Sorry to hear you've been messed about Fen.

Thankfully the Oxon health service seems to be better organised. I'm usually seen quite close to the appointed time by the appointed person at the appointed place. Berkshire are supposedly even better. My Father-In-Law was always seen promptly when he was having his diabetes (and associated problems) sorted out.

[Wheelman]

Erm

Was waiting to see him a couple of hours. When I did see him it took about another hour or so because of a problem which I won't go into in deference to the more squeamish, but was why I ended up with the pump.

From discussions with the nurses (who usually know what's going on) it seemed that this was fairly normal for his clinic. The quicker appointments were with one of the Registrars, but these were of a more routine nature.

As an aside, after a couple of stays in hospital for major surgery I find that I have to be a bit careful describing the various procedures. I soon got used to things and found that any squeamishness, embarrassment or inhibitions seemed to disappear after a while