please empty your brain below
In these days where you can get referred to locations way off in unfamiliar parts of our NHS district, I have neighbours who have gone on recce trips the day before just to make sure they get to where they need to be for the appointment. You get full marks from me and I'm glad all was well.
With regard to letters for appointments ... my NHS Trust (the same one) wrote to my health practice recently to summarise a call: "on calling the patient today, he was on his way to the airport, so have [sic] no time for the appointment. I quickly reassure him ... "
That will give my healthcare providers the clear impression that I was the one who was blasé and uncaring about appointments or resources. But (a) I was indeed on my way to Munich airport, and (b) I knew nothing about the appointment—the call came out of the blue—because (c) the only notice had been a letter mailed to me AFTER that appointment date (indeed after my return).
Glad everything is ordinary DG.
‘I can’t do that here. You have to fill in a form.
‘Can you give me a form?
‘I can’t do that here. It has to be done online.
‘Where can I do that?
‘You can’t do that here. You have to do it at home.
‘How do I do that?
‘I’ll text you the login details. (beep)
[Go back home - find online site - fill in personal details - dig out NHS number - create password]
Fill in ‘can I make an appointment to see the doctor?
‘You will get a phone call at…
[Next day]
Voicemail - ‘This is the Health Centre responding to your request
Etc, etc.
I should have been suspicious when, on my first in-person visit, I noticed the waiting room was empty, suggesting that nobody gets to see doctors any more.
Only when you're inside does it become apparent that is is Floor 6. It's such a big building that it hides the fact that it was built on a shallow slope and its footprint is so large that they have managed to fit 5 more floors underneath.
So, counter intuitively, if you have an appointment on Floor 4, you have to go Down two flights of stairs.
For old and confused patients, this is a puzzling start to an alien experience.
But marvel at the logistical contortions required to confirm that an apparently healthy 60-ish male is actually healthy (at least as regards the standard tests selected).
Now add 10 years and consider the variety of conditions that *might* be in their 'early stages' by then.
I'm sure you already keep a careful log of your medical events. Worth keeping a summary of the key events on your phone, ready for any triage (not to mention emergency services, should you ever be so unfortunate).
And log any niggles you've noticed, even if you don't think them important enough to consult someone: in retrospect, they may prove indicative when a diagnosis isn't clear cut.
Definitely use NHS Patient Access to get copies of all letters, scans, etc. to include in your personal archive. This is especially useful if you ever need to self-refer to a top consultant for a second opinion (and saves the cost of having the tests replicated privately).
Like any monopolistic bureaucracy, especially a sprawling franchise, the NHS is not inherently customer-focused. There are excellent/good/indifferent/shocking people/departments/managers and you never know which you'll get...
The hospital itself is crumbling, barely fit for purpose and unlikely to be replaced any time soon, but I still find it reassuring that it's just five minutes' walk away should I need its services.
Ah, there'll be an app for that, separate from the NHS app or the app the hospital uses fot its communications. Just don't try to log into it between 8.00am and 9.00am when the hospital's wifi's very busy.
(Good to read you're OK.)
The people mainly strive for excellence but their 'sausage machine' processes are in need of a major overhaul. If Wes "the NHS is broken" Streeting achieves nothing else, he'll be a success in my eyes if he can drag the NHS (hospitals) away from sending letters to confirm appointments, often (in my personal experience) followed by a second letter stating that said appointment has had to be cancelled. The cancellation letter contains the dreaded phrase "We will contact you with a new date in due course" - followed by an e x t e n d e d period of silence before the whole rigmarole starts afresh. I sense demand management, combined with waiting list manipulation.
It seems perverse to me that my local GP surgery is mainly deserted of patients during the daytime, while the professionals are presumably all on outbound triage calls.
I think we must now be unique! Our local (small) suburban GP surgury ONLY does face-to-face consultations. This is even if a quick telephone call would be more convenient both for us and the doctor!!
This was true even through all of covid!!
Also, normally you can get an appointment in short order as well!! Unique??
But if you don't answer you count as a no-show and will not only have to make a new appointment, but will be de-prioritised as they assume you are a time-waster.
Gripe No 2 - the practice of most hospitals to give names to buildings which give no clue as to what goes on inside - doubtless the people they are named for were eminent in their fields (or very generous) but it is not helpful in navigation. I recently had to collect some specialist medication from the pharmacy at St Georges - at the first entrance I found was a stern warning to use the main entrance unless I had business in the Lansborough building, so I walked several hundred yards round the complex in the pouring rain, only to find when I got to the main entrance that the pharamacy was, in fact, in the Lansborough building and had to walk all the way back again - still in the rain.
And I still have no idea who, what, or where, Lansborough is
I suspect it's more complicated than a lack of funding, although that won't help. And whilst I hate to say it, as it gives encouragement to those who want to abolish the NHS, my experience of booking a flu jab with a Tesco Pharmacy has shown that the private sector do some things much better. I should add that all the medical care I've had has been really good.
I presume it is some mandated fire regulations in newer buildings, but even without a disability I find them cumbersome.
Glad everything checked out fine.
TridentScan | Privacy Policy