be warned i'm gonna have a moan! i have had such a bad day /week/year . i went for my mri today and unfortunately i could only arrange babysitting for some of my children so i had to take my youngest with me . my appointment was for 1 pm the receptionist popped her head round the corner at 1.15 then went to lunch 2.30 she comes back no apologies for the wait. i should also explain that i was due to see my macmillan nurse today at 2.30 for the first time after waiting 5 months for one because the hospital ' forgot'. i had a list of questions a page long for her to alay some of my fears before my hysterectomy on wednesday. by the time i got to see the mri nurse i was crying my eyes out and blubbing incoherently about how much i was looking forward to seeing my macmillan nurse and how she would be waiting outside my house wondering why i wasn't there! my 4 year old son and partner the meantime had been waiting in a small waiting room while i was taking deep breaths trying to calm down. the nurse apologised and rang my macmillan nurse to explain and reported back to me that the nurse would rebook the appointment but it wouldn't be this side of surgery. great!
i don't even know what this mri is for ? i had an mri 4 weeks ago which showed the tumour in my cervix hadn't shrunk or grown and hadn't gone to my lymph nodes . this mri arrived in the post out of the blue and after much investigating by myself, i have had 4 different variations on why i need it , varying on
1. don't worry we have time on our hands so we thought we'd do one
2.it didn't show up on your pelvic mri
3. its just a precaution
4 . the radiographer saw something deeply concerning and would like a abdo mri
pick one any one 1,2,3 or 4
i'm supposed to going to hospital on wednesday even the admissions letter is confusing it says you are booked in for 8am and then says to phone between 2pm and 3pm for your bed!?
i was looking forward to seeing my mcmillian nurse today because the comunication between the hospital and me has been awful and i thought she could help. all thats been blown because the mri department decided to go on lunch break bang on my app time.
i have come back today absoloutly exhausted my 4 year old spent the last day of his half term stuck in a hospital waiting room and me and my other half arn't even speaking.
i was going to phone the hospital tomorrow to sort out what time i'm supposed to be in , now i am so stressed out i don't even want to speak to them.
sorry for the rant and rave just needed to get it off my chest
FormerMember
Dear Sammieo,
What a balls up! This is the Nasty health at its worst. You should complain loudly to the hospital admin.
First things first, make friends with your bloke. You were both het up and peed off but you need to be supporting each other (and the kids) so this is no time for fallings-out.
I hope you get some sense out of somebody when you phone the hospital. Look on the bright side - the nurses on the ward when you go in will probably be great. It's the administration that's all away to hell. Waste of space and money, most of them.
Don't be afraid to ask questions and don't be afraid to complain if you think you're not being treated properly. Honestly, you can do without all this hassle at an already stressful time.
But I'm sure it'll all be OK in the end. Best of luck and all good wishes from Shelagh xx
Oh you poor love, there is me moaning about the sad people, the depressing unit and the frosty consultant and you had to deal with this. You do wonder how the NHS has survived so long, what a mess.
I would say give em hell but you expend so much energy which you probably don't need it at the moment, its a bit like banging your head against a wall!!. However you do have a right to answers and info before your op and if that means via the consultant on the day of the op and before you sign the consent form so be it. Have you thought about talking to or writing to the PALS (patient liaison) co-ordinator at your hospital or pct, they should have one and they are there to deal with your complaints.
I hope your op goes well and that you get some answers tso that you feel more comfortable.
Yes, you have had a rough time. Don't they even speak to each other? I thought appointments were supposed to be known in advance by both parties! If you are having your op this week, maybe your Macmillan nurse will see you early next week. You won't be out before Sunday anyway.
They do know to expect you on the day, and 8 am is the day shift. They think they will have a bed for you, but it depends on who is discharged that day. They have to juggle beds like mad to fit everyone in. And there is Gordon Brown's Deep Cleaning job involving closing wards wholesale! They didn't have a bed for me until late in the afternoon, and then not in the ward notified. We met the surgeon in the main doorway of the hospital, and he had apparently been looking for me. Nobody had told him, Anyway I didn't see him the next day, but he saw me and whipped out my cancer, very neatly and efficiently.
It is stressful, waiting for a bed, but you should ring at 2 pm and keep ringing until you speak to the Sister, or someone who is expecting you in the ward. Then if they don't give you instructions, they will ring you back. Ring again at 5 pm if you haven't heard. Before they go off for the rest of the day. They will have to find you a bed for the day of your surgery. When is that? They have to make sure you don't have anything to eat or drink the night before.
Never mind about your MRI. You had one and know the result. Their reasons are illogical and don't matter. If anything comes of it, then you will know that bit more. Anyway, what probably happened was that they gave you an appointment for this one, then another appointment became available sooner and you went for it. They forgot to cancel this one and they are trying to cover up their mistake and look as though they really did want another one. Being old and grumpy, I would have gone home and seen the Macmillan nurse as a prior appointment then rung and asked if they still wanted me for the MRI scan.
I hope you have made it up with your partner. It's no more his fault than yours that the hospital have messed you about. Each of you probably thinks the other is blaming them. Your 4 year old can be thanked for helping you get your operation sorted out. "They also serve who only stand/sit and wait."
If this mess up can be explained, it doesn't mean it can be excused. Remember if they miss an appointment they can wait for the next one in your calendar.
Why can't they understand that we go into this with a lot of fears, a lot of worries, and knowing next to nothing of what is going to happen? Me too with no referral to a Cancer macMillan nurse until the end of the first lot of treatment., Sam! By the way, when I mentioned that because of having been raped I was really struggling with the examinations, and I would be grateful for some counselling or psychiatric help, I was told brusquely, "Oh you don't want to go down THAT road." I got no help.
Like you I had a terrible scene in the hospital because when I turned up for the first session of the post-oops-we-made-a-mistake Radiotherapy, I happened to look at my card and noticed that it had the name of a Chemotherapy drug on it. Transpired that one of the doctors thought I should have more chemo AND the radiotherapist said that as I hadn't started the chemo I couldn't start the radiotherapy that I had waited a couple of months for! I gave a perfect demonstration of the Screaming Ad-dabs and doubtless entertained - and probably shocked - the rest of the waitingroom.
As there are so many of us on here with negative experiences, I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that no matter how much the government says that the NHS has improved under its term, the NHS is about in as good a state of health as I am.
Am sending my love to you, and hoping that sometime soon things are going to start going right for you. xxxx
