NHS Policies has got me wound right up

Unity

Oscar_The_Grouch wrote: »

[/I]


Oh dear! I seem to have created a bit of a stir!! I have had appointments delayed due to tennis before. Does that help or would you prefer me to send you the evidence in the form of a sworn statement?

Well Oscar, if you will go to Dr Federer for your appointments:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:.

Sorry - just trying to lighten things a little . In all honesty I believe that consultants should be like anyone else, they should be accountable for their time. There's far too much of an "Us and Them" attitude in the NHS. It's okay for them to cancel an appointment at the last minute, or as I've had happen to me - I've turned up only to find that the appointment has been rescheduled, but no letter has been sent out.

GlasweJen

Mupette wrote: »

Now we both have immune system problems, and you can see they are totally different, not really, a crap immune system is a crap immune system.



You have a member of the family who works where you go, lucky you, so you get the help you need there. he's a technician, hardly going to bump me anywhere and it's actually a pain in the butt because all the nurses act like i'm not a patient at all because i'm just Jim's niece, I wont mind if they jump that person before me/set up the wrong machine etc.




Well we are not going to agree on this. Probably not.
I am sorry that you feel this way, but I am not going to start going to appointments if i have something to spread, I have dragged my whinny !!!! to appointments and that won't stop, if i can get there I will, it's when I am ill with something that i can spread that i have concerns about. The beauty of having a crap immune system is that I get stuff that no one else would ever get ill because their much better immune systems can knock it in the head before it develops so if I have some mystery virus or another it isn't going to affect the average attendant of a cardiac arrythmia clinic.

You've said that because of people like me you almost died, because you did not receive your check up in the time scale you should of. I suspect that if i was in a waiting room with you and I was coughing and sneezing next to you, you would also have something to say about that. Not really, I've been in the waiting room with all sorts.

What I don't understand is, if you were that ill, why did you not go to your gp who would of sent you to A & E for emergency treatment, who would of called on your consultant, (and uncle) who in turn would of seen you. It's a cardiac arrythmia not a rash. People go years with arrythmias then drop down dead with no warning, no symptoms etc. Famous footballers at the peak of their careers have dropped dead of arrythmias. I didn't know I was getting sicker the consultant worked that out for me.

filler text

Unity

I am happy to report that I had my op yesterday, so it was a case of third time lucky - although it looked at one point as if yet again it was going to be cancelled .

For some reason I went from first to fifth on the list, which is two places lower than last week when it was cancelled :mad:.

I hated having to do this, but I made a point of mentioning to everyone from the receptionist to the anaesthetist that I had endured two previous cancellations just to get the point over . Surprisingly no one could account for the first occasion as apparently the pre-op assessment could easily have been carried out on the ward, on the day if necessary .

The anaesthetist said he thought the previous week had been cancelled due to me having a cold, but I told him that his colleague had been happy to go ahead and had that actually been the case, then why would I be left sitting for four and a half hours after seeing the anaesthetist at 8.30. They would have sent me home straight away. I suspect my notes may well have been 'adjusted' .

I am a bit surprised that the results of the biopsies are being sent out in the post and no follow up appointment has been made. Maybe this is because they switched my consultant - or perhaps it's just the way things are done these days. Either way I don't think the results of cancer tests are something that should be sent out in the post :eek:. I suspect I may need a stiff drink before opening that particular hospital letter :beer:.

Thanks to everyone for their support and to Ceebeeby who has been so helpful with her insider knowledge via PM's.

Thank you so much :T:T:T.

Unity

Indie_Kid

Unity - I do think it's wrong that they'd send something like that out in the post. It would be so much better imo, if you were given an aoppointment to discuss the results.

krisskross

Mammogram results are always sent in the post.

sheeps68

Mi immediate reaction is they did preliminary checks and fairly sure nothing nasty is going to appear and you'll get an all clear result. If they do find anything I suspect you'd get a phone call or asked to go in for an appt. So I think you should be reassured by this.

qwertyuiop12345

ceebeeby wrote: »

Oh lord, what am I doing! I swore I wouldn't respond to anymore "NHS awful" threads ... and here I am again.

In response to the OP.

I am so sorry that you're upset that you've been removed from a waiting list, and that it has caused you distress - however, here's the thing. Each short notice cancellation costs the hospital approximately £70. You've now done it 4 times (£280).

Each cancellation has been as the result of an illness / condition, that you have given no indication has resolved itself. So, theoretically, you could be given another 4 (or 400) appointments, and you're never going to be well enough to attend them, or there's the slim possibility that you MIGHT be well enough to get along to one.

In the meantime 4 appointments (in which 4 other patients could have been seen) have been wasted.

So, your arguement seems to be to keep giving you appointments, and it's fine for you to short notice cancel as many times as you want???


I cannot think of a better solution, as to indefinitely keep on giving you appointments that MIGHT be wasted, is a bloomin' lot of taxpayers money down the swaney whilst there are other people on waiting lists hoping to be seen sooner.

The trouble with financial arguments like this is that they need to look at the full picture.

I was removed from a hospital treatment clinic in very similar circumstances to the OP when my illness made it necessary for me to cancel around 3 appointments. Yes, this meant the hospital saved the money that they might have wasted if I had also needed to cancel another appointment, but I am sure that this would have been far less than the resultant cost of just over a week of me being an inpatient at the same hospital due to not having received the outpatient treatment.

The £70 that you mention is tiny in comparison to most medical costs, making it far more rational to gamble the cost of a possible cancelled appointment against the alternative costs of the failing health of the patient.

Often NHS policy correctly weighs up these types of probabilities and costs, which is why they fund preventative healthcare and public health campaigns.

On a different note, I wonder if it costs the same £70 when the clinic/doctor cancels the appointment at the last minute like my physio did last week? Do the doctors also get removed from the clinic list if they take three days off?;)

Unity

Thanks people :T - I too am hoping that this is a good sign and that what they have removed turns out to be benign.

I've been having mammogram results by post for the past 20 years due to being in a high risk group, so hopefully it will be much the same as that - no probs .

Unity

Just a quick update - I got my results (officially) this week almost a month after the procedure and this was only after being telephoned on Monday to ask if I could make the follow-up appointment on Wednesday.

The good news is that the "thing" they removed plus the biopsies were benign.

I have followed up my original complaint letter with further details of the problems with the Choose and Book system - not because I want to cause trouble, but because I don't want others to have to jump through hoops to get proper treatment, especially when they may not be as lucky as I have been on this occasion.

Thanks again to everyone :T for their support and I hope you'll join me in a virtual :beer: or in my case :coffee: in celebration.

seven-day-weekend

I'm glad everything is Ok, and I'll have that cup of tea now.