Hi all ,my farther (76 years old ) went to the hospital on 27/02/20 to have a camera down his throat as he had been having problems swallowing , they asked him to do a full body CT scan while he was there, he was told by the doctor there that he had cancer. He was told they would be contacted by the hospital in 3 to 5 days . He was contacted the following wed 4/3/20 giving him an appointment to see a consultant on the Friday 6/3/2020. Unfortunately they rang the next day to cancel that appointment as the consultant was stuck in Italy .
The hospital rang to say my dad needed to attend hospital on Friday 13/03/20 to have a biopsy but this was in the lung cancer department. This was again canceled Thursday 12/03/20 and has been re booked for this coming Friday 20/03/20.
My dad still has not seen a consultant and we have no idea where his cancer actually is or how bad it is, we dont know how they intend to combat it .
my question is would anyone be able to point me in the right direction as to who we need to contact to try and find out what exactly is going on , is this normal within the NHS am i just expecting too much at this stage ?
thanks in advance.
Hi and welcome to the Online Community, although I am sorry to see you finding us and so sorry to hear about your father and the problems you are having getting information.
I see that you have asked your question in our Ask an Expert section so I won't prompt what they will say.
From your time line, it actually looks like you fathers appointments were arranged very quick compared to many hospitals, so do take this as an encouragement. He is in the system but the system is under massive pressure at the moment so I am not surprised that cancelations are happening.
From my 20 years living with and being treated for cancer these issues are unfortunately normal in the best of circumstances and I have had multiply canceled appointment over the years.
He most likely would not see a consultant until most tests are in anyway.
What did I do? I keep pushing the systems doors. If you still have his various letters (keep everything) then there will be contact numbers, either for the specific clinic or the hospital central appointments system.
Call them ask where things are at, ask if there are any canceled appointments as at the moment more than ever, people are canceling appointments.
Keep pushing the doors and I do hope you get one to open quickly.
