I have just come home to find that DH has had a letter confirming his first Oncology appointment on 23 October. This will be 23 weeks and 3 days (164 days) since he was referred and 102 days after he should have started treatment (although to be fair he has been on hormones for the last month if that counts).
I am hoping, as I have hoped in vain before the last two Urology appointments, that this time we will actually get a complete staged and graded diagnosis, because they will have finally figured out whether the lung nodule is malignant or not, and also a treatment plan.
I hope we will actually see the consultant rather than a member of his clinical team as so far no-one has been able to answer our questions and has always told us to ask the next person we are going to see.
Dare I hope that the end of this part of the road is in sight and that DH's prognosis has not been too adversely affected by the delay?
Hello ansteynomad
Well - at least you have an appointment in a time scale which is way off the Government Targets. i assume the delay in this appointment is awaiting his CT Scan results from 21 September.
I know you involved PALS but my personal opinion is that you should contact your local MP - a nice e-mail giving the full time line of DH's diagnosis path and ask two questions:
* What do they intend to do to stop others in the same boat having these issues.
* Are they able to push for an earlier appointment than 23 October as the anxiety is unbearable.
Sadly this is the NHS in some areas these days - the more people who contact their MP to raise awareness we can only hope the service improves.
Please do keep us up to speed.
Best wishes - Brian.
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