NHS Policies has got me wound right up

Oscar_The_Grouch

This thread is now 5 days old and in the original post, OP says they received the letter referring them back to their GP "a few days ago". I think from that, it would be safe to make the presumption that OP was discharged at least 1 week ago.

OP. Could you tell us what you've done in the meantime? Have you made an appointment to see your GP? What was the outcome?

I'm sure that everyone who reads this thread would be interested in keeping track of how your re-referral to the pain clinic goes.

Thanks.

Mupette

I'm still ill with this stupid cold.

I've so much gunk in my head it spins and i am all fuggy.
My hearing has got worse all i can hear is muffled noises..

I'm going to give it till the end of the week in the hope i will feel better to go out and see the gp

krisskross

Trialia wrote: »

Do you go by yourself? How near is your hospital to you? Do you have to use public transport to get there and go by yourself? I literally cannot leave the house when I have a migraine because even the sound of traffic and daylight make them so bad I am doubled over throwing up in the street with my coat over my eyes to hide me from the light. I've tried, and I cannot make it, by bus, by myself, to a hospital ten miles away when I have a migraine. They are that bad - and my appointments are just as important to me as they are to you. I will never be completely well again, so finding anything to mitigate my ill health is a godsend.

Have you tried using patient transport? A car is sent for my husband to take him to his appointments and bring him home. The hospital is 15 miles away. The service here is based on patient need but they allow me to accompany him as he is profoundly deaf. I got the phone number from the GP surgery.

Mupette

I am very very fortunate that we have hospital buses that run every 10 - 15 mins or so.
and even better for me it's at the end of my road.

Clean buses, very happy helpful drivers too. I cannot fault this service at all.
The hospitals are *when i was able to walk around carefree* (a few years ago now)
20 - 40 mins walk away all within a mile of me. abet all uphill..

Unity

Mupette wrote: »

oh for god sake, its not as easy as you are making out.
Yes i try extremely hard to attend all my appointments just these last 4 for the pain clinic i just haven't been able to due to being too ill.

What do you want a gold star... i was ill but i attended look how smug i am.

Go back and read what some of the posters have said, some of them could not possibly attend.

I fear it's no good looking for the milk of human kindness on this thread Mupette - it's well and truly soured . It must be great to be perfect :rolleyes: and I say this from the point of view of someone who has never missed an appointment , but I have a husband who is my carer, with a car (no, not a Motability one - it's 12 years old but reliable ) and he ensures I get to my appointments. I realise that not everyone is as fortunate - and I for one, don't think I'm in a position to judge others less fortunate who can't make their appointments for very good reasons. "There but for the grace of God, go I" - is a phrase that's not often spoken these days, I think it was lost under "Thatcher's Children" climbing over each other to get to the top .

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

maybe true for your particular clinic, but while my dad was an in-patient he was sometimes wheeled off the ward for out-patient appointments made before he went into hospital, including when he had been put in isolation with the Norwalk virus!

I can confirm that this is the same for my local (and very large hospital). Last week when I attended, there were in-patients in wheelchairs and on trolleys in the OP department, mixing with OP's in the X-ray and Ultrasound scanning depts., too. A lot of them were elderly and attached to their drip stands and no doubt at just as much risk, if not more than neonates .

Trialia wrote: »

Do you go by yourself? How near is your hospital to you? Do you have to use public transport to get there and go by yourself? I literally cannot leave the house when I have a migraine because even the sound of traffic and daylight make them so bad I am doubled over throwing up in the street with my coat over my eyes to hide me from the light. I've tried, and I cannot make it, by bus, by myself, to a hospital ten miles away when I have a migraine. They are that bad - and my appointments are just as important to me as they are to you. I will never be completely well again, so finding anything to mitigate my ill health is a godsend.

Very well put :T. Patient transport in our town is only available to those who are 'One step away from the morgue', but maybe this is another 'Post Code Lottery Case'. Even if you're in a wheelchair and the snow is 18cm thick :eek: you are expected to get there via private car, public transport or taxi (£35) - I asked for a quote last time, as I was worried about getting there through the snow.

Must go, I have an appointment for a pre-op assessment and despite getting over a cold and now having a really rotten cough I am attending. I wonder if they will choose to re-schedule what they described as an emergency op though?

Unity

krisskross wrote: »

Low immune system or whatever a cold is still just a cold.

I thought the same, but my GP disagreed, it turned out it was pneumonia :eek:. That's one of the problems with low immune systems, not the initial infection, but the resulting complications.

SingleSue

My hubby was the same (suppressed immunity due to large doses of steroids for Addisons disease)....a simple tummy bug which would lay someone low for 24-48 hours, usually ended up with him being rushed into hospital very seriously ill and having to stay there for a week!

Of course with children, we had lots of different tummy bugs coming home, so it was fun for a while until their immune systems picked up a little more.

DrFluffy

Mupette wrote: »

The clinic secretary made a suggestion that a hospital stay maybe needed

I hope that suggestion came from a discussion with a doctor. Wasn't aware secretaries had the ability and formal medical training to suggest, de novo, that admission was a good idea...

I really do feel for you outside of that - the costs associated with it have already been pointed out (and then multiply that by the 4-10 people who will also fail to attend in that session), but also, some people don't engaged (often calling to cancel and reschedule appointments at the last minute, rather than to DNA), and so it's prudent for the GP to reassess need for the referal and also what the patient actually wants - rather that the traditional paternalist attitude of 'patient does whay doctor says' - and re-refer as appropriate. They haven't said that you have been blackballed from the service, just that your GP needs to reassess need.

DrFluffy

Mupette wrote: »

I'd be annoyed if a nurse or doctor was treating me had a cold or flu, and i would say so too, and ask if there was someone else available.

then again hospital staff (my experience) can't be bothered to read your notes before seeing you, i feel less mistakes could be made if they just spent a few moments doing so

I always read my patients notes, but begin consultations with "so tell me about what is going on and what leads you here today" it's not that I don't already know, it's that I want to find out in your words - not the precis of the person who last saw you (or the GP note, which is often not 100% correct). The devil IS in the detail, and sometimes patients offer up new information which may be crucial in helping them (google the Calgory-Cambidge Interview Model).

Also, realisticly, in hospital staff went off sick everytime they have a cold - specifically the tail end of one, where you can look awful but are not infective - then the health service would be brought to its knees. I currently have a bit of rhinorrhea, having had a cold 4 weeks ago - think it's being driven by the floor cleaner in the hosptial I work at, given it also makes me sneeze from time to time. Completely not infective, but I can't imagine I look a picture of health at times!

DrFluffy

WhiteHorse wrote: »

That's very interesting. So, if for whatever reason, you can't get through the system in the designated target time, they simply solve the problem by throwing you out the system.

Yet again, the political agenda comes before patient care.

Hmm loaded statements - the "clock stops" as soon as you recieve definitive, active treatment (even thought you are still engaged with the clinic). DNAs and cancellations do not stop the clock, so repeated DNAs can end up costing a hospital more than the cost of the appointment as they are fined if more than a certain percentage of patients are not refered, seen and active treatment or discharge breach. Look up the 18 week rule...

I hate Government interference in health care, but the truth is people now get access to outpatient clinics much quicker. It also stops inappropriate "hanging on" to patients - where a clinic used to keep patients on their books out of interest or without really thinking. While there are people who would like this and the security it offers, there are also patients for whom this causes great distress - time missed from work and the associated costs, the label of being unwell enough to need repeated (but actually wholey unnecessary) out patient appointments...