Hospital appointments

[jaysay]

I've just been to the Royal for a check up this morning and whilst I was waiting for the ambulance to take me home I was reading the notice board
It appears that around 60,000 hospital appointments are missed each year in East Lancashire Hospitals at a cost of £5.8 million enough to pay the wages of 270 nurses for a year

SO DO YOUR BIT
KEEP IT, OR CANCEL IT
BUT DON'T FORGET IT

[garinda]

Some may have died, waiting.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by jaysay

I've just been to the Royal for a check up this morning and whilst I was waiting for the ambulance to take me home I was reading the notice board
It appears that around 60,000 hospital appointments are missed each year in East Lancashire Hospitals at a cost of £5.8 million enough to pay the wages of 270 nurses for a year

SO DO YOUR BIT
KEEP IT, OR CANCEL IT
BUT DON'T FORGET IT

Its not real money though is it?

Maybe if a few appointments are missed each day you wont have to wait as long when you go for your appointment.

[flashy]

BOLLOX to the appointment keeping, went for my pre op in April and i still havent heard anything about when i go for my op, despite attempting to chase it up

the hospital are arse's when it comes to stats...

[Neil]

I did offer to sort it out for you, being persuasive and charming not just grumpy like you

[flashy]

i tried too sort it out myself

[Acrylic-bob]

In the spring I went to the GP complaing of pain in both shoulders and my neck. he sent me off for xrays. they only xrayed one shoulder and came back ten days later with a diagnosis of Osteo-arthritis. Boo hoo for me. So the gp said that the best course would be to try Physiotherapy first, then medication, then if all else failed we would have to consider surgery - double boo hoo for me. while waiting for the appointment for physio I went for my eye test and got some new specs from tesco (£10 a pair wot a bargain) and found to my surprise that headache from neck had gone. Hooray! two months later got physio appointment so off I trotted and was made to wait an hour to be seen. The advice was to do a few light stretching exercises - this despite being told that I am lifting heavy weights all day at work-, and make another appointment so we can completete your assesment because I just haven't got time to finish it today. Needless to say I did not bother. The main reason being that, surprising though it may seem, my degenerative cartilege disease appears to have miraculously healed itself.

If I were a superstitious cove I would put this down to the intercession of the Blessed Cardinal Newman. But being a cynical old sod. it is more likley to be just another case of medical misdiagnosis. And to think I was nearly lined up for Surgery!

The moral of this story is, I suppose, the NHS is more than capable of wasting it's own time and resources without ungrateful patients helping out by missing appointments, thank you very much. The very idea!

[Taggy]

Originally Posted by garinda

Some may have died, waiting.

That could well be the case even after you've been given an appointment! A couple of weeks back i had an appointment at the Eye Clinic up at Royal Blackburn. My appointment time was for 10am..........i eventually got in to see the specialist at 1pm!! By the time tests were done it was 3pm when i left!
It was even worse for people would were bringing their small kids to the clinic, and 2 carers who were with a Disabled lady had to take her away because she was becoming "restless" and had to make another appointment for some months ahead!
It didn't help that a nurse kept coming in to tell us the waiting time was first 1hr..then 1.5 hrs...then 2hrs etc etc! rather than just being honest from the outset! Very Frustrating!

Best Regards - Taggy

[SPUGGIE J]

Its not just hospitals that suffer from appointments being missed and not cancelled but GP's practices as well. My Drs practice puts up a list off missed appointments on a month to month basis. Though how, when the appointments are on a same dauy basis each Dr has 1 miss per day beats me. I have only ever missed 1 hospital appointment because an admin error had me the right time right Dr but wrong hospital. So maybe there is a minute bit of that as well. Even when I once thought I would be late (though landed on time) I phoned ahead to let them know and that was because I was going to the new hospital up here and didnt have a clue which buses went there from were or how often. The Info I had was as useful as a bikini in Antarctica. There may be oter reasons but I doubt if any cash saved because more people get there would be plowed back in to front line services inc nurses. Personally I think a lump would end up as a bonus for a faceless desk jockey.

[garinda]

Originally Posted by jaysay

I've just been to the Royal for a check up this morning and whilst I was waiting for the ambulance to take me home I was reading the notice board
It appears that around 60,000 hospital appointments are missed each year in East Lancashire Hospitals at a cost of £5.8 million enough to pay the wages of 270 nurses for a year

SO DO YOUR BIT
KEEP IT, OR CANCEL IT
BUT DON'T FORGET IT

I wonder how many appointments they cancelled in that time frame, and what the cost to the economy was?

I was seen for a pre-op assesment in May. I had a letter telling me the operation would be in August. The evening before I was due in, after transport had been arranged, they cancelled the operation.

Subsequently they offered me the option to have it done in Burnley, rather than Blackburn, and it was done earlier this month.

The operation I had needs to be packed, and dressed daily, and on discharge from Burnley, I was told the district nurse would come and do it.

The first day they telephoned to say they would be there after 3pm, in the time frame I'd been given of 8.30am - 5pm. I said that was great, and I'd now be able to go and get a paper.

Because I said I was going for a paper the district nurse sister said I wasn't housebound, and therefore they wouldn't be attending, and I should see the nurse at my GP's. Fair enough.

There isn't a nurse available at my GP's on Wednesdays and at the weekend, so I was told to see a nurse at the Acorn Centre on Wednesdays, and Accy Vic's emergency outpatients at the weekend.

The first time I was due at the Acorn my mum phoned the district nurse sister, and asked if they'd pack and dress the wound, as I couldn't sit in a taxi, as I'd planned to do. She told my mum that even though I have mobility issues anyway, and struggle walking in the mornings because of Parkinson's disease, I wasn't actually housebound, so no. I took a taxi, and lay in the back. Thankfully we didn't crash.

My GP's nurse was off today, so back to the Acorn.

'I've arranged for the visiting dressing nurse to come out this weekend to you.'

'Who? You mean the district nurse?'

'No, the visiting wound dressing nurse service, part of the Primary Care Trust.'

'Great, thanks.'

You live and learn.

Perhaps the different parts of the NHS should learn too, when it comes to what patient services are available.

I've no complaints about the nursing care. They've been great. Well, all except the district nurse sister, who was a bit of a harridan in training. Her face, and people skills, could have curdled milk.

I had the same operation twice, in my last year at college, and both failed because they became infected, and even though they were dressed daily by the district nurse. With this operation costing presumably thousands of pounds, you'd have thought the aftercare would have been a bit more organised. I have to travel with a bag of equipment in case the places I've been don't have them. Luckily I'm able to tell the nurses what needs doing at each place, because there are no notes. I pity anyone old, or unable to communicate that the wound needs washing, packing, and dressing.

Overall, fantastic nursing care, but just a very disjointed NHS as a whole.

I won't now mention the terrible amount of waste witnessed at Burnley General. If it was a commercial concern it would have ceased trading years ago.

[jaysay]

Well I've been using the NHS as an in and out patient and I can honestly say I have only ever had a problem once and that wasn't real the fault of the clinic I was attending. These days I have to go by hospital transport because I use oxygen, but previously I was taken to by OP appointments by my Daughter, I always arrived well in time, I actually lost my rag with one woman who was kicking up a fuss because she had not been seen within half an hour of arriving in the OPD even though she was 20 minutes late for her appointment time. today my appointment was for 9-30am the ambulance picked me up at 8-55am I arrived at the CC at 9-15m was seen by at 9-25am my assessment took longer than expected because unforeseen problems cropped up, but I was home done and busted by 11-30 and that is par for the course

[cmonstanley]

how can anybody complain about the nhs its free not like in other countries we are taking it for granted it will never be 100% perfect but its free so dont take it for granted because it might not be here for long if the tories get their way..

[Taggy]

Originally Posted by cmonstanley

how can anybody complain about the nhs its free not like in other countries we are taking it for granted it will never be 100% perfect but its free so dont take it for granted because it might not be here for long if the tories get their way..

Its not Free we are all funding it in one way or another, we arnt the most highly taxed nation on earth for nowt! The treatment you get in many other countries now far exceeds what we provide here, yes some of these countries have to pay directly more for it, but as a result have more brass in their pockets to start with! I'm a Taxpayer and when things arnt quite right then i can exercise my right to complain!

Best Regards - Taggy

[cmonstanley]

so you want what it is like in other countries,they pay taxes and still have to paY MEDICAL INSURANCE TO GET TREATED OR have TO PAY TO GeT TREATment that leaves the poorest in society having to be reliant on charity or just die thats why the taxpayer funds it in this country it is also far superior to most hospitals in most countries. i would only complain if there was neglegence and not act like a spoilt brat because i have to wait a bit longer if it wasnt life threatening.

[walkinman221]

Well said, i think that for the most part the nhs do a fantastic job the staff on the frontline are good and want to do a good job but are hog tied by red tape and poor managment systems like any goverment body bureaucracy is the overiding factor in a already complex set up.