Hi I am a carer for my partner who was diagnosed with Adenosquamous Cell in January this year it is a skin cancer affecting his forehead. He was referred for Radiotherapy but at a hospital 1hr+ away when his local hospital is 10mins on a bus from his home, and they have a Radiotherapy Unit.
Everything seemed to conspire against us, wrong Drs Appointment at the outpatients was then pushed onto another Dr after we had waited 1 1\2 hrs who was quite adamant that she had seen her patients and we had been tagged on to the end of her clinic. When asked about going to the local hospital she informed us that radiotherapy unit was closed.We since found out from one of the radiotherapist doing his treatment that he ( the radiologist) also works at the local hospital in the dept the Dr said was closed!
Consequently the consultation was very rushed and we didn't feel we had the opportunity to ask questions his radiotherapy was 10 sessions, the parking at The Royal Surrey is horrendous even though we had a parking permit for the specific car park there was never a free space and cars queued to get in, causing more anxiety in case he was late for the appointment.
The Radiology Dept he was allocated has 2 rooms and numerous times the mask he has to wear during treatment was in the opposite room, which if someone was in there he had to wait until their treatment was finished before they could collect it to start his treatment.
One male member of the Radiology team did not position his mask correctly and my partner had to tell him it wasn't in the right place, plus this same guy only spoke to him to call his name no other communication like "ok we are leaving the room or hi all finished you get up and go now " even to the extent of moving the bed without notifying him when my partner was still laid on it. Unfortunately he saw this same guy 3 times and my partner did not have confidence in him not surprising that the mask 3 times in total was not positioned correctly.
Then a letter a copy from the Dr we saw initially stating he has stage 3 with PNI ( nerve invasion) this was not mentioned prior to the radiotherapy starting and as you can imagine there are a lot of questions we need answering. Trying to get the consultant to reply to these questions is like pulling teeth - although that would probably be quicker.
He has now finished the treatment but we won't know any details of how it has gone until the follow up appointment in July.
Still no reply 12 days after requesting answers am I just expecting too much ??
Hi Navy Mum2
So sorry you have been through all this,sometimes it does seem like nobody actually listens to us indeed in the past I have even had my GP comment the hospital can ignore him just as much as it ignores us.
Most hospitals will have a contact for patient advice often called PALS - patient advise and liaison service and they have been very helpful to us in the past.
Hope you get the answers you need soon
<<hugs>>
Steve
Hi Navy Mum2
We have certainly met some consultants who seem to think they know more about the patient than the actual patient and it can be easy for the doctors to consider cancer as routine since they see it every day..
<<hugs>>
Steve
