To Complain or Not To Complain?

I’m sorry you have been through so much , but just to say you should probably be entitled the free hospital transport. These are ambulances used to pick up non-mobile patients and transport them to hospital clinics . You should phone the clinic that you attend and ask them to arrange it for you . Good luck .

I agree re transport. That was a ridiculous amount of money to pay for minicabs. Sometimes an ambulance comes, other times it is an ordinary car. I don't need help this end but I do at the other because my clinic is usually the other end of the hospital.

When I receive my appointment, sent or printed, I write on it, walks with a stick, can walk to a car, needs no help this end but a wheelchair at the other. The GP receptionists relay that information to transport and mostly it works well. You have to give as much notice as possible for transport.

I wouldn't make a formal complaint because it could backfire but I would and will let my named GP know of my treatment concerns.

It’s hard to complain when we largely want to support our NHS but if we don’t complain standards will continue to deteriorate.
I suggest you lodge a formal complaint sticking to the facts and being very polite, no emotive language even though you’re rightly upset and angry.
If the outcome is an apology and an assurance that lessons have been learned then so be it. We just have to trust the sincerity of the former and the truth of the latter.
Hope things get better for you soon.

I have been using hospital transport to get to and from the wound clinic. It's not available to take you to your GP practice which is where I had to get to every day for 2 weeks

The surgery and the wound clinic are in 2 different places, one is not connected to the other in any way here which seems to be the case for some posters.

The wound clinic is a unit attached to a small local hospital in a different town to my GP surgery.

I didn't know where the tissue viability clinic was, had never heard of the road, and had not the faintest idea where it was.
If a friend hadn't taken me, well.. I'm not sure how I'd have got there,

My DH as had leg ulcers on both legs for about 20 years. In our previous home, his treatment was truly appalling, resulting in permanent damage to his legs. Both legs have very fragile skin now which ulcerates at the least knock.
Now he has a much better programme of care and one leg is healed! The other is improving … I do his dressings once a week and they are done at the surgery once a week too.
Instead of the awful, leaky, insecure compression bandages, his dressing are covered with soft stockings and wraps with Velcro fastenings. They are brilliant. Ask your nurses if they can source them.

Velcro sounds such an excellent idea, come to think of it.

I have velcro wraps but at the moment even pulling on the liner causes the wound to open further.

It sounds thoroughly miserable for you.
I wish i could suggest something helpful, but nothing comes to mind.

How can things improve when the nurses treating your leg don't know what they are doing? Those nurses should be able to treat your leg as instructed and can't. I would make an appointment at your surgery with the leading doctor or the practice manager. Go prepared make it factual with the pictures, not too many. Then tell of how it has been for you emotionally. It's disgraceful to those in charge to turn a blind eye, they should be held to account. It's not about money its about change and what's right.

Aha!'
I was pindering the "nice" guidelines during the night, and just found details.
Im sure you know they are best practice guidelines, and hold a bit of sway...

cks.nice.org.uk/topics/leg-ulcer-venous/management/venous-leg-ulcers/

It may be worth perusing them and highlighting anything that differs feom your experiences.

Sorry, you may have already done all of that, but the info is easy to read, and was was updated in may this year.
Hope I'm not pateonising you

Also, I wasn't "pindering"

No MissA not patronising at all. And yes, I've done a load of reading of medical journal articles and research papers, but I'm always grateful for a bit of useful signposting - I'm sure there's still plenty for me to read up on.

There's nothing like a quick pinder on a hot July morning....

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Normally I wear compression wraps on both legs during the day. Recently I've had to use 'yellow line' to keep a Klinderm dressing in place on a really tiny wound that was refusing to heal. Because the 'yellow line' provides continuous light compression the wound has finally healed.

There didn't seem much point in adding an extra layer with the liner so didn't. My 'bad' leg was more comfortable with naked toes so my 'good' leg got a 'yellow line' liner, too.

Might be something worth trying ferry23 rather than disturbing your wound with the liner on & off.

Cressida

Normally I wear compression wraps on both legs during the day. Recently I've had to use 'yellow line' to keep a Klinderm dressing in place on a really tiny wound that was refusing to heal. Because the 'yellow line' provides continuous light compression the wound has finally healed.

There didn't seem much point in adding an extra layer with the liner so didn't. My 'bad' leg was more comfortable with naked toes so my 'good' leg got a 'yellow line' liner, too.

Might be something worth trying ferry23 rather than disturbing your wound with the liner on & off.

Hi Cressida. I've got dressing, blue line, bandaging x2, wadding, x2, and then yellow line. But you just had yellow line to keep the dressing in place?

And now it's healed, you're not using the actual wrap liner, but using yellow line instead? Is that correct?

I'm not sure I'd convince the wound nurses to go down that route as they've insisted that when I'm bandage free I have to have whole foot compression even though I find it incredibly uncomfortable.

I'm pretty sure the nice guielinrs say something about the patients choice re: dressings.
Within reason, I assume.

How did you come to cut your leg in the first place? Did it involve a third party from whom you can claim?

Last personal injury claim I put in I got £23,000 because a company fixing the street lighting had carelessly left a barrier in the way and I tripped over it.

When my legs were so raw I also could not tolerate much more than JJelonet on my legs, Copper dressings were applied and seemed to work.. Many different dressings were tried previously but a few weeks after with the copper dressing I could tolerate a compression bandage for 7 hours but no longe. It was a start and a month later I could wear compression bandages for days.

ferryI am aware in your case it has been going on for do long.

Yes, ferry23 I only had yellow line to keep the dressing in place and have been using it instead of the sock type liners that came with the wraps.

However, I have had Lymphoedema in both legs for over 30 years although it wasn't actually diagnosed until 2020. My lower legs used to be very swollen but now look pretty normal. As long as I wear my foot & calf wraps every day I don't need any compression when I'm laid in bed.

Cressida I am pleased to hear your legs have returned to normal. I cannot wear "normal" trousers at present, I have bought 3 pairs of wide leg and I alternate.

I am sure if I lay on my bed with my legs up the wall it would make a difference, but that isn't practical. I will wait until both are healed and then concentrate on reducing the swelling.

I can't wear trousers at all because of the awful swelling above my knees.

Compression bandages and reshaping sorted out my legs below my knee but got no help with the swelling above my knee apparently for 'hygiene reasons' .

Charliegirl5 thanks for mentioning Jelonet as I'd never heard of it before but it seems like it would be something useful to have .

Cressida it is excellent but be careful if buying from Amazon. Some are so small they are a postage stamp size and are not malleable. The type I have are large, "wet" and fit around my leg soothing it.

Charleygirl5 postage stamp size would be fine for me as I've only had tiny wounds since I've been wearing the wraps.

Oreo has good advice, I would say to my GP my concerns but no complaints at least until my condition is sorted