Why does the NHS keep shooting itself in the foot.

DH suffers from heart failure. He has been more breathless recently, so we contacted the Heart Failure clinic. That was yesterday afternoon. 10.00am this morning the HF nurse arrived, assessed DH decided against hospital admission but said she would arrange an urgent GP visit. To ring the surgery if we hadn't heard from them by 3.00pm. We hadn't, so DH rang them or rather tried to ring them, after 20 minutes on hold he gave up.

DD reminded us that the surgery is on something called TotalTriage. All we needed to do was fill in a form. That was at about 7.00pm. Then we remembered, this wonderful superduper computer system system only works between 8.00am - 6pm, weekdays only.

which takes us round in a circle to my first post about the NHS shooting themselves in the foot.

M0nica

DH suffers from heart failure. He has been more breathless recently, so we contacted the Heart Failure clinic. That was yesterday afternoon. 10.00am this morning the HF nurse arrived, assessed DH decided against hospital admission but said she would arrange an urgent GP visit. To ring the surgery if we hadn't heard from them by 3.00pm. We hadn't, so DH rang them or rather tried to ring them, after 20 minutes on hold he gave up.

DD reminded us that the surgery is on something called TotalTriage. All we needed to do was fill in a form. That was at about 7.00pm. Then we remembered, this wonderful superduper computer system system only works between 8.00am - 6pm, weekdays only.

which takes us round in a circle to my first post about the NHS shooting themselves in the foot.

My 82 yr old friend is in heart failure, couldn’t get her breath, took herself to A & E on the bus.
She said it was unbelievable busy, like something out of third world country. People lying on the floor.
I said she should have asked for 111 to give her an out of hours Gp appointment, instead of sitting there for hours on end.
I had terrible pain around my liver area & vomiting NYD. So my husband phoned for an ambulance. Ambulance said it wouldn’t be long, but then phoned & said four hours, could I go to A & E, said there was no way I could go & sit in A &E like that.
The person said she would ring Gp, I got appointment within the hour up at our local hospital.
I was in & out within half hour- phoned my gp in the morning & he arranged a scan. Now waiting to see a specialist in April.
Very impressed with my treatment.

DH rang the surgery this morning to discuss his 'urgent' appointment, the one the HF nurse wanted. They initially offered him one next Wednesday!!!!!!!!!! He repeated that theHF nurse said the choice was balanced between GP and A&E, and urgent and he got one at 12.30 today. The GP did all the tests and was reassuring.

I still have to find out who I have to ring at Addenbrookes to find out who to ring to check on this scan. It was a routine scan, everything done online and the scan taking place in a satellite scanning unit attached to a community hospital 20 miles from Addenbrookes. Oh for a good old fashined letter. With over 2 months between scan and appointment, I doubt there is anything dramatic to tell me.

I waited 10 months to get a torn tendon and a ruptured tendon diagnosed so I could get the right treatment - included a useless x-ray and then months awaiting MRI results when someone finally agreed to a referral. Much of that time I was on crutches but still did quite a bit of further damage trying to walk on it after much encouragement because 'it's just a bit of osteoarthritis, not that bad on x-ray'. I'm very disappointed but it's not surprising as the NHS was deliberately run into the ground by the last few governments who saw that as the way to get the public to accept privatisation 😕

Oh they went one further with me. My telephone appointment was on a Saturday at 1pm, like you I was told an hour either way. By 3pm I tried ringing them, no answer. I tried again at 3.30pm the last time at 15 minute intervals until 5pm,no answer.
First thing Monday morning I rang them to say I'd never received the call, could they sort it out and I made it clear how annoyed I was that my entire day had been taken up waiting for a call that never came.

On Wednesday my gp received a letter... Informing them I'd been discharged from the hospital because I didn't attend the appointment!
I rang PALS immediately and told them they'd better sort it out, the next day the hospital rang to book a face2face appointment the following week.

Contact PALS.

Contact PALS . Yes, that is probably the way forward.

M0nica Never 🥲 as a retired senior manager is all shite!

I don't do NHS apps or try any other her apps at all. Once they have got you on any app. You life is never your own. Not to mention to the may poor security aspects of them.

The NHS had one a few years back which kept hundreds of thousands of NHS patients off it because it said their NHS number was invalid.

The Ring and Ride Transport for Greater Manchester Via App takes the biscuit for one of the world's worst app..After nearly a year it is still not working.

Could you not get in touch with the PALS, Patient And Liaison Service at the hospital your husband attends?

I have found them to be very helpful in the recent past with several problems

Sure you can get something sorted soon.

Good Luck
X
😻

I assume that 'MyChart' is some fancy incarnation of AI?

These hospital administration systems do love wasting funds on fancy digital doo-dahs. But they don't seem to work.

But they STILL insist on posting appointments using Royal Mail, which also doesn't work........you may as well give up before you start.

I recently had a message in MyChart to make an appointment for an X-ray, which my GP had requested. I spent 20 minutes going round in circles on MyChart until giving up and ringing to make the appointment instead. I got the impression that it’s not unusual. I’m with Addenbrooke’s too.

mae13

I assume that 'MyChart' is some fancy incarnation of AI?

These hospital administration systems do love wasting funds on fancy digital doo-dahs. But they don't seem to work.

But they STILL insist on posting appointments using Royal Mail, which also doesn't work........you may as well give up before you start.

MyChart is a computer programme that works 'mechanically' All your test results are posted on your page, plus information about appointments etc. Certainly no AI involvement. Sometimes wonder if intelligence of any kind was involved it.

Does this all waste more money than it saves?

Does seeing a nurse at the GP practice twice then ending up having to see a GP instead because the nurse gave you the wrong treatment save money?

M0nica

DH rang the surgery this morning to discuss his 'urgent' appointment, the one the HF nurse wanted. They initially offered him one next Wednesday!!!!!!!!!! He repeated that theHF nurse said the choice was balanced between GP and A&E, and urgent and he got one at 12.30 today. The GP did all the tests and was reassuring.

I still have to find out who I have to ring at Addenbrookes to find out who to ring to check on this scan. It was a routine scan, everything done online and the scan taking place in a satellite scanning unit attached to a community hospital 20 miles from Addenbrookes. Oh for a good old fashined letter. With over 2 months between scan and appointment, I doubt there is anything dramatic to tell me.

Good do Monica, he stood his ground with the surgery & got a result!

It's no good being ill and unable to cope if you need to negotiate the NHS.

Allira

It's no good being ill and unable to cope if you need to negotiate the NHS.

Yes, our surgery expect us to do the leg work.
I now just ring gynaecologist secretary when I need my six monthly Botox procedure.
I don’t even bother going through our surgery.

M0nica

mae13

I assume that 'MyChart' is some fancy incarnation of AI?

These hospital administration systems do love wasting funds on fancy digital doo-dahs. But they don't seem to work.

But they STILL insist on posting appointments using Royal Mail, which also doesn't work........you may as well give up before you start.

MyChart is a computer programme that works 'mechanically' All your test results are posted on your page, plus information about appointments etc. Certainly no AI involvement. Sometimes wonder if intelligence of any kind was involved it.

MyChart usually works well. Is there a facility on your account to contact the department dealing with you? One can usually send a message and somebody will get back to you.

twiglet77

I recently had a message in MyChart to make an appointment for an X-ray, which my GP had requested. I spent 20 minutes going round in circles on MyChart until giving up and ringing to make the appointment instead. I got the impression that it’s not unusual. I’m with Addenbrooke’s too.

That's not my experience at all. However, I have a feeling that some departments at Addenbrookes are more efficient than others.

The problem is everything from first contact with the NHS through diagnosis, treatmetn etc can all be done without the patient at any point having any contact with a real human.

I am not sure if this is the fault of NHS admin or Royal Mail but today, Thursday, received a letter telling me that because of unclear results on my colonoscopy I need a flexible sigmoidoscopy. I had the sigmoidoscopy last Thursday.

Should add, staff at both procedures were absolutely brilliant.

My partner is currently on the phone to our medical centre because someone knocked on his door yesterday to say that he had been given his blood thinners by mistake. The poor man was crippled with arthritis and had hobbled to his house to deliver them. This is on top of prescriptions never being ready. The place has gone to pieces.

I would have been contacting the clinic just after 3pm to enquire what was happening. Fair enough, the consultant may have been called into theatres to attend to an emergency but that surely wouldn’t stop an administration clerk from phoning the patients waiting for calls would it?
Communication is a wonderful thing when conducted two ways……..doesn’t work otherwise.

My 88 year old friend had a routine appointment for bloods two weeks ago.
She was asked by her surgery to go along last Friday to discuss the results.
She had already read the results herself on the NHS app which her D had installed for her.
When during the appointment she mentioned two things which had concerned her, her GP told her she had no business to be reading that and if he wasn’t worried then she shouldn’t be.
What is the point of the app if we are not supposed to access it?

Astitchintime No one has actually told me which department is involved, although I am pretty sure I know.

I read on Facebook that there is going to be a new system for referrals in April which will cut waiting lists but make it more difficult to get one. Does anyone know about it?