Boring bit – referred to hospital, spoke to consultant, sent for CT scan. Took a bit of time but acceptable delays, blah blah.

Seven weeks (and some chasing by myself), hospital finally sent a letter to me saying I need to come in to speak to consultant. Another 4 weeks for the actual appointment. Morning off work, fine, I’ll live with that (hopefully 🙂 )

Came in, spoke to a doctor who told me the diagnosis and I’d need a biopsy. Slightly annoyed at this as we could have all saved time if the letter just said “you need biopsy, here is the date” rather than the 20 second conversation that was 45 minutes late anyway. The quote “never heard of that, I had to look it up” didn’t inspire confidence either…

Rather than arrange said biopsy, I’ve now got to go back in a couple of weeks to speak to the original consultant for him to repeat the same news. Then wait for the actual date for the biopsy (can’t be same day – need to be knocked out for it).

Is it me, or could a lot of the steps have been cut out? Or is it just hospital procedures that leave enough gaps in it for emergency cases?

Poor rant admittedly, no caps lock, exclamation marks etc., just been a long week worrying (top tip: never allow your missus to trawl internet looking for pictures of what they’re going to do to you in the operation!)

One of the sad things that still exists is the silly protocols and steps needed for certain procedures.

never heard of that, I had to look it up

Better than taking a wild guess, least he was honest but I can see what you mean.

I’m due for an ultrasound scan at my local hospital. When, I don’t know. I handed the form in at the correct reception and asked for an appointment to be made. Despite my various contact details being supplied on the form I have yet to hear from them ten days after. If nothing heard by tuesday I will get on to them again.

In this interconnected world wouldn’t it be a simple thing for the doctor to book me an appointment from their desk as I was sitting by it?

At least you knew about the appointment. I got a snotty letter about missing an appointment for my son before I got the letter telling me we had an appointment the week before. I wouldn’t mind so much if we hadnt already been waiting 16weeks for this appointment…

It’s not all bad….had to go to the doctor’s for wife’s natal appointment….we waited 2 hours and got a $900 bill for the privilege at the end of it. Sometimes I really wish I was back in the UK!

What oliwb said. We should all push for improvements in the NHS, especially in efficiency and bureaucracy. But don;t trade the longer waiting times and frustrations for the cost, worry and destitution that a US-style system can bring.

At least you knew about the appointment. I got a snotty letter about missing an appointment for my son before I got the letter telling me we had an appointment the week before

Was that them or Royal Mail though?

One of the sad things that still exists is the silly protocols and steps needed for certain procedures.

Sadly prevalent in any large organisation. Not to say it can’t, or shouldn’t, be improved on though, I agree.

i went for my blood tests 1 may 9 am we agreed 1 may at the last one so i could easily remember the date.. so there i am expecting to be the first appointment. after 5 folk had been in i chirps up with a cough.. excuse me..
” no not today your not on the list…. but but but no not today your wrong.. so off i go tail between legs.. lunchtime gets a call.. sorry our fault you did have an appointment can you come back today.. yes of course i ll drop everything .. it was never like this when gordon and ed were in charge..

MrsMC broke her finger on holiday in August last year in Cornwall – A&E in Truro patched her up, we came home with a splinted finger, some xrays and instructions to get checked again by our local hospital in a weeks time.

Local hospital refused to see her unless she was referred by her GP – so she had to wait to get a GPs appointment, got referred, got an appointment etc etc. Seemed a terrible waste of GPs time. The finger is still not healed btw, not sure if the delay didn’t help.

A mate’s mother was rushed to hospital yesterday morning with chest pains and irregular heartbeat. Various checks were done on her, and they identified a genetic heart muscle issue. They told my mate he should get it checked to see if he had it, 50/50 chance.

But he had to make an appointment to see his GP this morning to get a referral to see the team who told him yesterday that he needed to get checked.

I know that the vast majority of NHS staff are hardworking, under appreciated and try their best. But their systems don’t always help them.

In that case the due process seems OK. Your mate needs to be tested sure, but not as a priority case IMO. The GP will record all the details on his medical history as part of the visit.

My 2 month old (at the time) son had life saving heart surgery in February at Leeds LGI. We’re talking choping up this, patch up that, move this pipe here stuff, the sort of proceedure where they sugar coat nothing. He was in for exactly a week and the care he received was out of this world.

My Mum went in to Airedale Hospital today to have her Pacemaker removed and replaced. She had the op at mid day and was home by 5pm. Just spoke to her and she’s fine and full of praise for the staff on ward 20.

I bloody love the NHS me. 8)

But couldn’t my mate have sorted an appointment while he was there, and not tied up a GP appointment and missed half a days work?

hhmm … plenty of bureaucrats working there milking the system so stay healthy to avoid having to speak to a computer. I have already encountered them and had no choice but to bow to their bureaucratic power. 😯

In this interconnected world wouldn’t it be a simple thing for the doctor to book me an appointment from their desk as I was sitting by it?

To give him his dues he did try ringing the appointments desk, then looked at his watch and went “ah, dinner time, they won’t answer”.

We’re talking choping up this, patch up that, move this pipe here stuff

Slow down there Dougy Houser keep it simple.

It was a she, and no telephones were involved.

Today, my wife waited seven, yes seven hours for her discharge meds!

I’m not going to moan about her being woken at 4am last night to move from the bed she had occupied for the last ten weeks.

Or why she was in for 10 weeks in the first place! But it does have something to do with waiting weeks for tests, then weeks for DR’s to reveiw said tests.

I have a vast experience of the NHS as a partner of a patient and have learnt that nothing happens quickly, or slowly most the time.

The NHS is broken.

If you can, get private cover.
If not, expect everything to take a very, very long time.

In this interconnected world wouldn’t it be a simple thing for the doctor to book me an appointment from their desk as I was sitting by it?

Last year went to the gp, who said i need a certain test, and he showed me a list of all the hospitals in the uk with the shortest wait time, and i could go to any one, under choose and book all done from his computer, there was also a patients guide to each hospital.

Oh and when i worked in the NHS, i f i needed to order something that we didnt have in the hospital stores, i had to submit a request to my senior, he would then submit it to his senior, who would then submit it to the district manager, who then pased it back to her admin assistant, who then sent it to supplies dept, who then placed the order with the supplier, and eventually we got what we wanted about 6 weeks later.

Just giving us a dept debit card would have been cheaper and easier, but not allowed.

I work for the NHS.

One thing to note is that while it is the largest employer in the UK and the 5th largest in the world it really is a collection of SME’s – with the corresponding non-connected systems and processes.

http://www.nhsconfed.org/priorities/political-engagement/Pages/NHS-statistics.aspx

But he had to make an appointment to see his GP this morning to get a referral to see the team who told him yesterday that he needed to get checked.

I know that the vast majority of NHS staff are hardworking, under appreciated and try their best. But their systems don’t always help them

But under the system set up a couple of years ago in the health and social care act, the GPs have the money. Your local GPs may well have a contract that says we won’t pay you (the hospital) for work unless we refer the patient.

If the hospital does a load of ‘free’ work then they’re NOT doing work that they’re getting income from. If you don’t get enough income you can’t pay staff or buy supplies. If you can’t do that then you can’t provide a service to anyone. “The NHS” as a singular ‘blob’ doesn’t really exist anymore, it’s a maze of budget holders paying various service providers to do work. It’s all part of the market to drive efficiency savings….

http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/nhs-65/alternative-guide-new-nhs-england

Edit: b r kind of said the same thing above…

This makes interesting reading:

http://drmalcolmkendrick.org/

It’s a fairly common thing, I went in to A&E to get my hand looked at just before christmas, confirmed it was broken and I should see the surgeon but they were booked up so come back in a week to see the guy. Yep it’s broken but it’s been left too late to do anything about. So 3 referral appointments which were all at 9am, turns out everyone got a 9am appointment. best was 3hrs. Then I speak to the first doc, who has to clear everything with her boss. So having waited for 2hrs the first thing I have to do is go for an x-ray, then rejoin the queue to be seen again. It’s all fire fighting, really far too much time spent running round madly doing 100 things at once to see that there are a lot of things operationally that could be done better to make things better.

Ironically while I was waiting for the all the appointments/xrays etc. I was doing the modelling for ortho out patients clinic layouts and process in another hospital.

I would agree with alot of the comments made here, the system can be incredibly slow and tedious at times. Its frustrating for all concerned, one corollary to all that though – most of the frustrations relate to elective or non time critical care – if you are suddenly taken very ill the system generally jumps to action very quickly.

Most of the staff within the hospitals also think these processes are ridiculously slow and stupid its just that generally we dont make the systems and are too busy doing our jobs as they stand to spend too much time on the politics of the underlying systems!!

the health and social care act

The supreme irony of the latest top-down reforms (which Cameron claimed wouldn’t happen) is that they have increased bureaucracy, not least due to the ever-more byzantine commissioning process. All the pseudo-market nonsense, as so beloved of seconded Mckinsey consultants, has simply resulted in the further fragmentation of services. Continuty of care is becoming harder to maintain, with multiple “other providers” often passing the buck – and the knock-on effects are being felt in emergency departments everywhere.

Combined with the financial pressures on major hospitals, it’s a pretty grim situation. 😕