Why does the NHS keep shooting itself in the foot.

Frustrating

Im sorry this had happened ]flowers]

I spent a whole day getting texts making and cancelling same day appointments and I’m sure it was because they could say they’d met the timescale of offering an appointment

My dh had to go into hospital recently for an inpatient stay and I honestly could fault the care at all, even though it wasn’t a planned stay but the service isn’t connected is it, from some departments

and of course you’ll be worrying regarding an MRI scan. I hope you are okay Monica

How frustrating!
If the new “MyChart” system is a one-way street it is not fit for purpose. I would be inclined to go down the old system route and get on the ‘phone to the hospital Dept. tomorrow.
You have waited and worried long enough and I hope you get a response pdq.

Frustrating isn’t it?

My son was encouraged at Addenbrooke’s to go on MyChart. The girl on the desk signed him up there and then and said it would be marvellous. We watched her do it.

Except it wasn’t. he could not access it at all for weeks. Messages were being left for him which he did not see. Once they sorted it, it proved very useful.

You know for sure that all is not right in the NHS when the once world renowned Addenbrooke’s gets it dreadfully wrong 😥

news.sky.com/story/familys-anger-as-hospital-unit-where-father-died-after-surgery-mix-up-investigated-13519196

Why is there another app instead of improving the existing NHSApp? We have that, had/have PatientAccess, now this one.

Do you know the consultants name? I would ring his secretary to explain that you never received any phone call.

MT62

Do you know the consultants name? I would ring his secretary to explain that you never received any phone call.

That might work except when it doesn’t. I tried for 5 days to get in touch with a consultants secretary, firstly the sec was on leave and nobody else could deal with anything pertaining to the consultant then I tried her again when they said she was back but kept getting the answering machine I had already left several messages on. I tried the switchboard and they put me through to someone else who seemed quite helpful and gave me an extension number which turned out to be the sec’s number. Eventually I got through to the sec to ask her why a scan hadn’t been booked because my DH would be seeing the consultant in a few Sara and had said a scan of my DHs head needed to be done. She says they don’t communicate with radiology and gave me their number. I got an answering machine for them and it took me another day to get through and book a scan that for which a request had been put in 3 months before
As my DHs full time carer this makes my life ten times more difficult, but I have to keep doing it even though it feels a lot of the time like I am banging my head against a brick wall.

Sorry about typos my phone has a life of its own.

Fallingstar

Sorry about typos my phone has a life of its own.

I’ve only really dealt with our gynae department. Usually one of the other secs will get back to me within a day, or two, but TBF I’ve had that ‘such & such’ is on holiday until next week.
Must be frustrating though if you are waiting for results, especially if they say they will call you on such a day.
I have had that, where I have ‘missed’ a call on my notes from the Gp surgery & I know that I have been practically sat on my phone waiting for that call. So annoying.

My friend had a letter last Thursday, a copy of a letter sent to her GP from a Consultant she saw sometime last year.
It said he would arrange for an MRI scan before seeing her again.
She had that scan last November and is still waiting to hear the outcome.
Left hand/ right hand?

I have found that a Consultants Secretary is usually absolutely wonderful and helpful.
The one for the Endocrinology department at my local hospital has sorted out so much for me and so quickly If she is not there and I leave a message on her answerphone she always responds speedily and sympathetically within a very short time.

Consultant is the medical person, but for appointments, queries/ problems on these, etc. it is the Secretary who I rely on.

My son received a letter from the Oncologist last week.
It was dictated late November and typed up in December! It was postmarked recently too.

A few years back, I had to keep going back and forth between the local doctors surgery, which was just a couple of minutes walk away, and the hospital, which was 25 miles there, another 25 back. Costing me a fortune in petrol. It was once monthly for a year.

This was before I moved here to Whitby.

They kept telling me they'll ring me. I asked them to hold on as much as they could as I would be at work and might be dealing with customers, but I WOULD reply asap, the hospital said they were fine with that..

They sent me postal letters and phone texts saying they'll ring me on a certain day, at a certain time, within 1/2 hour either side, OK, no problem. I sat there at my work desk with my mobile ready.

No calls at all from them at any time.

This happened several times over 12 months. Out of every 10 calls, I had 2; the other 8 calls never came!

The next time I had an appointment at the hospital, the nurse I saw got quite snotty with me, demanding to know why I didn't answer the calls! I sniped at her; they didn't ring ME 8 out of 10 times when they said they would, and I did sit there dealing with customers and waiting for the calls.

It got to the point I refused point-blank to attend any more appointments because I got sick of being messed around and I couldn't keep taking time off work each month, I was losing wages and customers.

The next thing I know, I'm getting a letter, quite blunt and abrupt, saying I'm being taken off their list as I wasn't answering their calls!

That's fine by me!

Over months when DW was being treated, the combination of specialist nurse and consultant's secretary was unbeatable. Local GP is excellent, except when I am referred to a facility shared with other local practices. Communication between them is shaky, to say the least.

petra

You know for sure that all is not right in the NHS when the once world renowned Addenbrooke’s gets it dreadfully wrong 😥

news.sky.com/story/familys-anger-as-hospital-unit-where-father-died-after-surgery-mix-up-investigated-13519196

..and there was a story this weekend saying the neuroligical department at Addenbrookes is failing. Oh great, that is the department I am with.

He was probably dealing with an emergency. It is frustrating but that would, rightly, take priority.

Basgetti

He was probably dealing with an emergency. It is frustrating but that would, rightly, take priority.

I uite agree, but sudden emergencies are part and parcel of hospital life. Surely there should be systems in place to inform the person waiting that the appointment has been cancelled and will be rebooked. The systems to do that should be part of the software suite that runs MyChart and reuire little or no import from the clinician. The department adminstrator will know aabout the emergency and justs hits a key.

This is one of the NHS's problems, it is always looking for emotionally blackmailing excuses instead of just sorting the problem out.

Fair point.

I have found phone appointments are usually pretty good. Timing can be an issue as they are often fitted round patients who are attending on person. On one occasion a phone call scheduled for two came in at 6.15. She was apologetic but she did not rush the call When seen in person you never felt rushed

Primrose53

My son received a letter from the Oncologist last week.
It was dictated late November and typed up in December! It was postmarked recently too.

That’s bad 😳

I agree with the previous posters, that speaking to the consultant's secretary is usually the way forward. At least it always used to be - not now. I will name and shame here and have no compunction. Secretaries at the Norfolk and Norwich never answer their phones or respond to messages left on their flipping answering machines, despite every bit of ID imaginable being left. A nurse once told me that it was because they were very busy. Er, um .... am I missing something here. It is a secretary's job to deal with telephone calls - that is why she is employed. For heaven's sake, they no longer even have to transcribe Mr Pitman's or dictaphone tapes or put a letter into an envelope - all my medical letters come from Bristol. Why?

I do vaguely know what I am talking about as (a) I was properly trained and (b) latterly was a medical secretary. If I had not responded to patient telephone calls, I would have been sacked and quite rightly.

A friend broke her arm on a Sunday and the hospital gave her a prescription for morphine. The hospital pharmacy was shut so next day her daughter took it to Boots. The pharmacist wouldn’t fulfil it because she didn’t know the doctor who signed it. Another 2 pharmacies did not have it in stock and one told her to go back to the hospital an hour away. The hospital pharmacy would not fulfil it because it had been issued the day before. When it was Sunday and shut.