How to get past the receptionist...

jenhug

Contact Pals, as previously recommended by another poster. Its the Patient advice and liaison service, they work for the patient to get the best outcome. It PALS speak, the hospital listens. It is not a complaint, they just have ways of making them talk, so to speak.

I have my daughters consultants direct email. I may not always get a reply until late at night, or even a day or two later, but I know she will get back to me as quickly as possible.

thorsoak

Check the hospital website again - then look at the Consultants - rather than search for name, go through all the consultants, speciality by speciality. You should find it then. If not, phone the switchboard and ask for email details.

belfastgirl23

My next tack then would be to say at the end of the call 'then I'll call you back in an hour and see if I can catch her in' and keep doing that, being polite but insistent that you need to talk to her. And ask 'just for information' whether there's a complaints procedure.

Going there is also a reasonable option but you need to be determined not to leave before you talk to her and that could take up a fair bit of time.

Flugelhorn

I think you may fond that some consultants will never talk to patients on the phone - they aren't as used to it as GPs.
If you want to pass on information then I suggest you put it in writing and send it in - will at least get looked at.

mountainofdebt

I may be a little thick here but perhaps everyone is assuming the consultant actually knows who victory and her son is? I mean unless the issue is so rare that the name would light up neon lights, perhaps the consultant (if they have had the message) is thinking who is this woman or even waiting for notes so that they can refresh their memory.

If the change in circumstances mean a different course of treatment then surely the best idea is to get an appointment with the consultant to discuss it face to face?

mountainofdebt

Flugelhorn wrote: »

I think you may fond that some consultants will never talk to patients on the phone - they aren't as used to it as GPs.
If you want to pass on information then I suggest you put it in writing and send it in - will at least get looked at.

Or even they won't as they may not be able to satisfy themselves of identity

gunsandbanjos

mountainofdebt wrote: »

I may be a little thick here but perhaps everyone is assuming the consultant actually knows who victory and her son is? I mean unless the issue is so rare that the name would light up neon lights, perhaps the consultant (if they have had the message) is thinking who is this woman or even waiting for notes so that they can refresh their memory.

If the change in circumstances mean a different course of treatment then surely the best idea is to get an appointment with the consultant to discuss it face to face?

Very true, depends how often they see them and what for. One of DD's surgeons knows her very well, we have bumped into him in the street and he makes a beeline for us to chat.
Others, could walk passed us and not even notice us.

gunsandbanjos

Do you have a liaison that you could speak to? I have the mobile number of my daughters spinal liaison nurse who works directly with the consultant. If I need to speak to them I just phone and leave a message if they're busy. Never have an issue getting in contact.

Wilma33

You can probably guess the email e.g. [EMAIL="firstname.lastname@townhospital.nhs.uk"]firstname.lastname@townhospital.nhs.uk[/EMAIL]

The bit after the @ will be the same as the hospital's website address.

If you get it wrong it will probably bounce back.

Heffi1

Very often Consultants do not want to talk to patients outside of appointments and will tell Secretaries, on no account put any calls through.

I had a case recently where my boss (GP) was contacted by a patient to pass on details to a Consultant, which they did, but the Consultant did not contact the patient, it was a bit of a tricky case and the patient decided to call me to see if I had heard anything.

After a few days of him calling and me promising to find out what was happening, I called the Consultant on his behalf and basically said this patient is very frustrated and wants to know what is happening.

I had a lovely call from the patient a couple of days later thanking me, the Consultant was so embarrassed to have forgotten to call this patient back and thanked me for reminding them !!!

It is not always done in a bad way, but unless someone tells you, you will never know.

I also know of some secretaries who are terrified of their Consultants and would not dare to question them...

My advice would be to look on Google for the hospital and there will be a contact us button, usually with a form to fill in, I would complete it with as much information as you feel you want to share and hit enter. This gets looked at by a central admin team and they will pass it along to the Consultant, also there is a trail of when you contacted them.

Failing that I would call the Secretary once more and if you can't speak to the Consultant, ask for an appointment and mention that it is urgent,.

Then invoke the complaints procedure if that all fails.