Dusty's Frugal Fortnights Return!

dustydigger

MrsCD said:

Are you OK, dusty? Is the family OK, too? 

I have had trouble with my back,its a bit uncomfortable sitting at the computer. I phoned the surgery on Friday asking if they had received results of my scan on Jan 6th,have had no word. Also asked if there was any news of my eye op. The receptionist said she couldnt answer,had no authority to do so,so she would arrange a doctor to phone me Monday afternoon,the 20th. Spent the whole afternoon,from 1pm to 6pm waiting. No call. Same yesterday and today. We have the worst most inefficient surgery possible. I had turned down an apointment last week at the surgery because I was still a bit woozy with the remnants of the vertigo attack,I certainly didnt fancy getting on and off buses!

But now I will have to call tomorrow and make an appointment. The call will mean between 10-15 minutes hanging on the line waiting to get through.

Thats it for now,will tell you if I EVER get any sense from my surgery......sigh.........

tooldle

Do you have 'Ask my GP' service at your practice? If so it can be used to request results, assuming the results are indeed going to the GP practice and not to be communicated directly via letter from consultant.
Here in Wales, GP can give only indicative wait times for procedures. More precise times can be obtained from the service provider as maintainer of the wait list. 

dustydigger

tooldle said:

Do you have 'Ask my GP' service at your practice? If so it can be used to request results, assuming the results are indeed going to the GP practice and not to be communicated directly via letter from consultant.
Here in Wales, GP can give only indicative wait times for procedures. More precise times can be obtained from the service provider as maintainer of the wait list. 

I would expect the back results to come from the hospital consultant,just going on spec with my docs to see if anything showed up on their radar, eg if the surgery got a letter.But the surgery should have set up some connection with the eye infirmary,if they ever did so. I just wanted to prod and see the results!

But setting up a phone call then not carrying it out is just not on,is it? It has happened repeatedly with nurses supposed to phone with results

Nor is being in a queue for a minimum of 15 mins to get in touch exactly good either.

dustydigger

Sorry people,am so busy today,am doing Mr Dusty's dinner,then DD2 is bringing GD4 this pm. She will be 14 this week!

Been having lots of calls today,its never the surgery

Our surgery has a sort of ask the doc proforma thing,but only in general common illnesses. Too distracted with calls from abroad,meal prep,birthday prep. helping Mr Dusty with his phone (never ending,same issues just repeating themselves) so I will try to come on here in a day or two,but for now,ciao

tooldle

dustydigger said:

tooldle said:

Do you have 'Ask my GP' service at your practice? If so it can be used to request results, assuming the results are indeed going to the GP practice and not to be communicated directly via letter from consultant.
Here in Wales, GP can give only indicative wait times for procedures. More precise times can be obtained from the service provider as maintainer of the wait list. 

I would expect the back results to come from the hospital consultant,just going on spec with my docs to see if anything showed up on their radar, eg if the surgery got a letter.But the surgery should have set up some connection with the eye infirmary,if they ever did so. I just wanted to prod and see the results!

But setting up a phone call then not carrying it out is just not on,is it? It has happened repeatedly with nurses supposed to phone with results

Nor is being in a queue for a minimum of 15 mins to get in touch exactly good either.

Have a look at the practice handbook to see what it says on these matters.

dustydigger

Finally got a call from a doc. they say they phoned Monday afternoon,but I have no record of such a call on landline or mobile.

About the back,no word yet,have to wait for letter from hospital consultant. I pretty much expected that,just was trying on offchance  our docs knew something.

The eye stuff is a different kettle of fish. Yes the diabetic eye nurse did tell the surgery last year. Yes they sent the details to the eye consultant. He could see little to no evidence of problems,just a slight reduction in sight in that eye. No problems. They never bothered getting in touch with me. My doc today complacently said go to an optician for this minor sight loss. Exactly what the eye nurse emphatically decried last year.She really knew her job,she realized this would be progressive.

 I told the doc today that sure when that scan was taken last year things were fine. I hadnt even noticed any deterioration myself/ But as time went by it has certainly got worse,and the last few months there is definite deterioration.. I would rather believe that eagle eyed nurse than some specialist just looking at pics.

So,what I wanted to do 10 months ago,going to an optician,is now the advice. Probably the optician will take one look and tell the docs to send me for a scan!

 Second verse same as the first.They are hopeless.

I remember after my hysterectomy I got a letter asking me to go for my routine annual smear test about 6 months later. I phoned the surgery and said did I need it,since I had had an op,no womb left to scrape. It was a big surprise to the receptionist. We have no info that you had such an operation was her indignant reply!  Hmm,must have been a dream

dreaming

I do feel for you. My eye surgery has just been postponed (again) until March. It was originally due to be last October (after a 6 month wait) but after a discovery of womb cancer was postponed until February 15th so I could have a hysterectomy and recover.  Then eye op. was put off till 22nd Feb., now 15th March. On the one hand I understand that this is not desperately urgent, and I am grateful that it is happening at all, but as my daughter has to take time off work to drive me to Oxford, it means she is having to rearrange her schedule. My sight is very variable in one eye - some days it isn't too bad and I can manage to read fairly well, but other days I am having to "patch" one side of my glasses, or close one eye, which makes getting out and about a bit tricky as I have very little depth perception so worry about falling. My hysterectomy went well and I was told by consultant that he was confident that the cancer had been completely removed as it had been discovered (by chance) at a very early stage. I then had an interesting phone discussion with my GP in January who rang to ask how I was feeling. "Fine", I said "and over the moon that no further treatment is necessary". This totally threw the GP who then said he would chase this up as I should be at least having radio/chemotherapy if not a hysterectomy. "Oh no", I replied, "I had the hysterectomy 6 weeks ago and everything is clear now".  He obviously hadn't looked at my records as the surgery had rung me after discharge from hospital to say that if I needed anything I should just ring them but was reading a hospital letter dated from October when I first saw the gynaecologist. Mistakes happen, I know, but this GP works mainly "from home" with 2-3 locums who actually work at the surgery part-time so it doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. The other staff (nurse practitioner/phlebotomist/pharmacist/reception) are all brilliant but sometimes you just need to "see" a doctor (or at least for them to see you). I have looked to change practices but the only other one close to me that I could get to without transport doesn't have good patient reviews so for now I am sticking with the devil I know. I hope you get some action on the eye problem soon. I am a reader too and know how frustrating it is not to be able to see properly. I don't particularly get on well with audio books and can't always get the books I want to read online at a reasonable price. Oh well, we just have to adapt and survive I guess.

beanielou

What a blooming carry on.

MrsCD

Dear me, if it's not one thing, it's another. Sorry you're having such problems with GPs, dusty and beanielou. The health issues are enough in themselves, without all the hassle. I have occasional difficulties sorting my dad's appointments etc, but nothing compared to yours. Hope you both get help soon.xx

dustydigger

@dreaming

Wow,sorry you too have had bad experiences. Multiply it across the whole countryand tens,possibly hundreds of thousands of people are suffering from our poor ols battered NHS. Little wonder NHS workers are leaving in droves,they have so much stress.

Not sure what to do. Should I see an optician,who will probably see problems and refer  me back to the docs,or wait till my diabetic eye test next month and see if there has been massive deterioration lately,and she can tell the docs and they can tell the hospital and here we go round the mulberry bush again. Personally I cant see an optician being able to help. Glasses wont bring the vision up to scratch,because a bloody great bag of fluid is blocking everything! My nurse told,me,drain the fluid and things will go back to normal. Tested with a magnifying glass today,with my hopelessly weak very myopic right eye, looking at through the glass my vision got clearer and sharper. So proper lenses could improve the vision. Using the wonky eye on its own just shows a white haze,going nearer the screen has no effect,the glass makes no difference whatsoever.

So much for the consultant's view last year,now its much much worse/

So people,what do you think. Faff around with an optician. I'm sure he will just refer me back to the docs. Or,wait for my appointment with the diabetic eye nurse who obviously knew what she was doing. The situation is so drastically worse this year even the consultant,who obviously needs glasses himself ,should see it now.