Does this mean I'm going to have to watch Eastenders! (prostate cancer story line)

Interesting trying to imagine all reasons for tying him to a chair ,. Yes I've been a bit harsh I guess, my partner was seen pretty quick after the PSA. But like you say it seems like an eternity.

“As for tying Steve Barclay to a chair, I quite like the idea", Ive just seen him on the news, see what you mean. 

Yeah if I was 20 years younger I might not have needed to tie him to a chair, but I think he'd be scared stiff (no pun intended) now. 

Hahahaha! 

That's a dreadfully unprofessional way for your GP to have behaved.  In the light of your position now, the GP needs to be reprimanded!  No consolation for you and your partner, but hopefully it might help others.  We wish you well with treatment going forward.x

We also found that the GP surgery got in the way of getting a PSA test when it was asked for. I don't necessarily blame the full time/permanent GP, but getting past the receptionists and a locum telephone consultation resulted in over a month's delay in getting the test and over 2 months delay in getting an MRI and first appointment with urology.

Once seen in urology, although every day seemed like a month, they were more proactive. They weren't always as coordinated as we would have liked but from his first appointment to surgery it took just over 2 months, due to them deciding that a CT and Bone scan was needed to be sure that it had definitely not spread.

If GP surgery had given him the test he was entitled to when he asked a month could have been saved and maybe his T number would have been T2 instead of T3a because it had broken through the capsule.

My husband contacted the surgery a few days ago to ask why none of the letter's from the hospital are showing on his patient access documents. Letter's that he was cc'd into, going back over a few months. Their answer was that they're not on the system because they've not received them.

The worrying thing us that we'll be relying on these numpties at some future date to arrange the regular PSA tests and have to get passed them first. If hospital letter's are stuck in someone's in tray or pile of filing there'll be nothing on their system to back up the request. Requesting his first follow-up PSA  test in person, armed with the hospital blood test form was difficult enough as was the request for a prescription for the medication listed on his hospital discharge report which I was also armed with.

One of the responses I got was 'does he know that you're making the appointment'. My answer which was far more polite than I wanted to be was 'yes that's why I have this form'.

We had a bit of confusion at the start of the regular PSA tests. A consultant meeting had to be cancelled because the request at the GP's had not gone through and when it did the appointment was for weeks later. Like you say trying to get through to someone in the surgery and dealing with the blood centre backlog was fraught with difficulty. Our consultant then emailed/phoned and got really angry with the situation and since then my partner has monthly PSA tests through like clockwork. Angry consultant seems to be the route through.

L

Our surgery is literally at the end of our street so we just can just pop in to request the appointments. As soon as we know when the next one is due they'll be seeing me smiling through gritted teeth over the counter, hopefully armed with a copy of a letter they've been sent,  but deny having. Any more problems will be followed up with a formal complaint to the practice manager. I may just throw in the breach of data protection that I found in my online records which was another patients test results, complete with their name and address. Oh, and the abnormal PSA results in 2018 that disappeared within days of my husband getting access to his online records after his diagnosis which they denied having.  They said it wasn't possible for them to have removed it, but told me they would remove the other patients result from mine.

Hubby is adamant he didn't have a test then but I'm not so sure. He's been more concerned about getting through this and won't make a fuss. Whereas I'm thinking that if it was his result he could have been treated before it broke through. 

The evidence has gone now so we'll never know. 

It took a complaint to my GP practice manager to ensure I get what I need. Now they appear to bend over backwards to deal with me. My blood tests are done at the practice where as others appear to be sent to hospital or chemists to have their bloods done! I have had an incorrect diagnosis removed from my online records and also am "missing" a couple of documents but after a good winge I think they don't want me at the counter anymore!!

Sounds like your practice is like our current one and our last one.

Our last practice was closed down after an investigation as they were found to be failing on so many levels including record keeping.

We joined the practice when we first moved here in 2003, had travel vaccinations done there and they did reports for life insurance policies. In 2007 I needed them for the first time because I was really ill. I rang them from work to ask for an appointment as my symptoms were intermittent and had appeared when I got there. I was offered an appointment within the hour  but it was impossible for me to get there as I was in Westminster and my commute was 2hrs each way. They wouldn't give me another appointment later that day or the following day and told me to ring first thing the following day. No better than today's situation.

My boss advised me to go to a walk in clinic on my way to Victoria Station and I was advised to ring my surgery again and tell them that she said they needed to see me urgently. I caught the next train home and rang from the train only to be told that I couldn't have an appointment because I wasn't registered with them. When I asked if they'd removed me from their list without telling me they said they didn't need to tell us.

I spent the afternoon ringing around other surgeries and couldn't find one who was willing to see me and I ended up ringing the family practioners or whatever it was called. They said they couldn't force anyone to see me and all they could do was send me a form to fill in so they could get me registered with a gp. I was desperate and was waiting for my husband to come home to take me to A and E. Then I got a call from the surgery saying they'd found my notes in a filing cabinet and they'd not got round to putting me on the computer system. They gave me an appointment for the following day and after blood tests and an accusation of lying about not drinking much alcohol I was sent for an ultrasound which resulted in a diagnosis of multiple gall stones and a fast track referral to an NHS treatment centre for a cholecystectomy. 

The following year my baby granddaughter who has a chromosome anomaly was staying with my daughter who was looking after the house while we were on a cruise. She rang me in a panic because the baby was having a problem with her chest so I told her to ring them and say she wasn't registered but she needed a Dr. They refused to see a sick baby who was over 200 miles away from her own gp. I then advised her to go to the pharmacy at the end of our street, which us next door to our now current surgery. They told her to go into the surgery and if they refused to see her she should take her to hospital. Fortunately they saw her and prescribed her with antibiotics and an inhaler because she had bronchiolitis.

My daughter asked why we weren't registered there, but their list was closed when we moved here. She said there was a notice up saying they were taking on patients and she got us the firms to register.

They haven't been much better really as they diagnosed my husband with type 2 diabetes and several years later the nurse asked if he'd had a glucose intolerance test when he was diagnosed because all his results were normal after his initial diagnosis. He was diagnosed after a single blood test and when he finally had the glucose intolerance test he wasn't diabetic at all. Our daughter was as mad as hell, because when she was pregnant with her next 2 babies she had the test he'd not had because she told them her dad was diabetic.

My records have also got an abnormal mammogram result on it from when I was recalled, but not the letter giving me the all clear. The letter for the other patient is her all clear following a recall but my suggestion that mine could be on her record was poo pood.