Being an account of the most pointless, frustrating doctor's appointment yet in long history of them

[selenay]

Some of you may remember that I saw my rheumatologist at Christmas and he declared that he was at the end of his knowledge on helping a hypermobility patient. He was nice enough to admit it, though, and although he wants to keep monitoring me he also wants me to go to a specialist clinic where I can see consultants and physios who actually specialise in the thing.


My rheumy is pretty bad with paperwork, something he acknowledges, so he advised me to wait until late Jan/early Feb before pestering the GP because it would take him that long to write a letter to my GP. You'd think it would be easier to remember to see the doctor when my back/hip are causing a lot of pain, but I was feeling so tired and fed up for a couple of weeks there that it's taken me until now to sort out the appointment and find one that I can actually get to without taking too much time out of work.

So the appointment was going to be today. I'd been psyching myself up, particularly as I wanted to talk to the GP about the fact that my hip has taken to partially dislocating at random intervals, and I was all ready. Then I got a call two days ago to ask if I could move my appointment forward by half an hour because Dr. M had to leave early. I figured it would be OK, arranged with Da Boss to work through lunch so I could still make it and set off this afternoon.

Got to the surgery and went to reception. "Hi, it's Sel here for Dr. M. I have an appointment? At 4.50pm?"

"Ah, yes. But it's Dr. P, actually."

"Um, but I specifically wanted to see Dr. M. He's my regular physician and I'm here for a referral."

"Sorry, we had to change you to Dr. P."

"Nobody told me that on the phone. I would have made another appointment if they had."

"That's not my fault. Please take a seat and shut up."

So, not a good start. Got called in within two minutes of sitting down, never a good sign, and went to see Dr. P. She wasn't particularly amused that I wanted to talk to her about an on-going medical problem that I'd never seen her about before. Neither was I. She said I should have seen my regular physician to get the referral and now she'd have to read through all my notes before she'd be able to do it. Couldn't I have seen Dr. M instead? I told her that, as far as I was concerned, I was seeing Dr. M and hadn't been told otherwise until two minutes ago.

Oh.

After reiterating the importance of continuity of care and the fact that it would be a huge job for her to trawl through my notes so that she could recommend that Dr. M write the referral (huh?) she agreed to look into it. But not for at least a week because she's going on holiday and won't see Dr. M before she leaves. Yay! She did take a photocopy of the list of specialist clinics that I got from the hypermobility association, but I'm not holding my breath that the referral letter will be going anywhere soon.

All told, I spent ten minutes in the surgery getting told off for not seeing my regular doctor, didn't try to ask about the changes in the pain I'm getting (Dr. P was not amused about having to step into a long-term situation she knows nothing about - asking about actual medical stuff from it didn't seem like a good idea at that point) and I am not feeling overly optimistic about my referral.

And people wonder why I get so frustrated with all of this?


This rant brought to you by a large glass of wine and the wonders of the NHS.

Comments

[gmul.livejournal.com]

How utterly, utterly useless!

[selenay]

*sigh* Yes. Needed the wine and the evening in front of the TV to calm down enough to write this coherently and with hopefully a touch of humour rather than just writing an expletive ridden rant at my surgery, with lots of bad names for the receptionists. I did feel sorry for Dr. P, but she could have been a bit more sympathetic about the fact that I thought I was seeing Dr. M thanks to the receptionist! When they called to rearrange the appointment, they actually said that if 4.50pm was no good then they could arrange another appointment with a different doctor. Hmm. Wonder where I got the impression that I'd be seeing Dr. M?

[munchkinott.livejournal.com]

Ergh. I know that feeling. :-\

*offers to share her bowl of coffee cake*

[selenay]

Oooh, coffee cake. Thank you, honey.

*digs in happily*

[margec01.livejournal.com]

Ah, modern medicine. Useless on either side of the pond.

[selenay]

Indeed. There is no limit on the reaches of medical stupidity :-)

[elingail.livejournal.com]

NHS oh the joys.

My favourite line from my recent hostpital visit was the doctor when she turned up 3 and a half hours after I had been admitted with,

"Hi I'm Helen. I'm really sorry, I didnt know you were here."

Hehe, it doesnt seem to get any better either, Im beginning to consider going private on my Dad's med plan. I was reading somewhere that Vitamin C is meant to be very good, going to buy a tub tommorow and see how that goes.

[selenay]

Gah. The NHS is fabulous fun. I read the account of your visit to the hospital last night and the scary part is that it's not surprising to find people being treated like that. I do try not to be too nasty about the NHS - universal healthcare is something that we're very privileged to get - but when we get treated this way...*sigh*

Vitamin C is good for many things and, as long as you don't overdo it, there's no reason at all not to try it. My father's been on 500mg a day for years and swears by it. I just have visions of me rattling if I take any more pills!

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

{{{{{{{{{ hugs }}}}}}}}}}}}

I hate scheduling SNAFUs. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I hope the referral is quick, prompt and with updated medical advice. Waiting is hell. Maybe we should call Dr. House. At least he'd be entertaining.*g*

[selenay]

*g* Now Dr. House would be fabulous fun. Although I possibly wouldn't like to be treated by him...

I'm not holding my breath on the prompt aspect of the referral, but hopefully they'll have some good advice when I get there about how to handle all of this and what I can do to help myself.

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

No, Dr. House would be way too sarcastic and god only knows what he'd dream up to torture you with. Bastard. *g*

{{{{{{{{{{{{ hugs }}}}}}}}}}}}}}

[selenay]

Yup, House is fun to watch but I'd definitely not want him actually treating me! Bastard, but a lovable bastard in his own way :-)

Thank you for the hugs, they're always welcome. And {{{hugs}}} to you, too, just because I can.

[spacefall.livejournal.com]

*stabs NHS*

[selenay]

*through gritted teeth* Universal healthcare is a good thing, I will not kill the practitioners

*ungrits teeth, unlocks jaw*

I have a good imagination, though ;-)

[waveney.livejournal.com]

watervole also suffers from Hypermobility (and other ailments) if you wish to compare notes...

[selenay]

Thank you. Although I know logically that I'm not the only person out there with it, the only people I've met so far have been on-line and I haven't actually 'seen' another person with it. Does the hypermobility cause her problems?

[(Anonymous)]

Yes she has lots of problems with arms, fingers, back, shoulder, neck. She has some exercises from the Physiotherapists that have reduced the problems but they remain. Our younger son (Henry) who was also at Redemption, is also Hypermobile (which is why he won the twister), but he has yet to have any problems.

[selenay]

I had physio when I was a kid that reduced the number of dislocations and sprains significantly, but now I'm getting a lot of pain in my hip and back that the docs are blaming on the hypermobility. I had no idea that there could be a problem with it aside from the sprains and dislocations! It's not been fun to discover that there are other problems possible :-(

The physios have been given me exercises to strengthen my back and hips, but they got pretty stuck with knowing what to do that wouldn't damage me further or cause fun new dislocations. Poor physios.

Mind, it was pretty useful when I was dancing and I'm told that it can also have some beneficial side-effects for musicians. Hopefully Henry won't be getting any of the back sides of hypermobility :-( I've linked to watervole's journal. Oddly, my mother's father and uncle had something wrong with their hands that caused their fingers to curl into the palms. And the hypermobility comes from her side of the family. I'm starting to wonder whether there's a link.

[alyse]

Write a letter of complaint to your GP's surgery. While they aren't officially part of the NHS complaints process, they still have to give it due attention within the same sort of timescales and give you a written response. And an apology.

You don't have to feel bad about complaining - they are told, repeatedly (Drs and the NHS as a whole) that complaints processes are a necessary part of improving services and that they have to take them seriously. But the best thing - and the thing that you will be interested in - is that they have to put together an action plan on how they are going to improve things in future, including how they're going to avoid future scheduling errors.

And if your GP practice gives you no joy, you escalate it up to the relevant PCT (Primary Care Trust).

[selenay]

I'm going to give it a couple of days and see how I feel about it all. If I wrote to them right now, I probably wouldn't word it well. The fault was with the receptionist because she should have explained up front that the changed appointment time also changed the doctor I was seeing. Maybe I should have inferred it from the explanation of why the appointment time changed, but it's something that should have been explained to me.

I may well write a letter next week to explain why I was upset about it. Under other circumstances, the change of doctor wouldn't have mattered but this was something that I specifically needed Dr. M for. To me, the best action plan they could make is a promise to always inform patients clearly if they are going to change the doctor they are seeing because I can't be the only person who books to see specific doctors to keep continuity of care going.

Huh. I think I'll try to draft something this weekend and give it a go, if only to make sure other patients don't get treated this way. Thank you.

[nic]

Oh, the NHS used to drive me NUTS. *hugs*

[selenay]

Thanks for the *hugs* I well remember their wonderful treatment of your "tonsillitis"!

[wadjet-theperv.livejournal.com]

What a bunch of arseholes. Poor you! It really is pot luck as to whether you get a decent GP or not, and I swear there's some school somewhere for doctor's receptionists. The ones at our surgery obviously flunked it because they're always helpful, polite and will do whatever they can to get you what you need and want.

Wish I could send some down to you!

Can you get another appointment with Dr M? Since your circumstances have changed, your condition has deteriorated and it's an emergency? ;o)

[selenay]

Dr. M is a great GP - I don't know what I would have done without him. Unfortunately, not everyone at that surgery is as good and the receptionists have shown a certain level of incompetence before, most noticeably with my repeat prescriptions.

At the moment, I'm planning to wait and see how I go before attempting to get another appointment with Dr. M. My circumstances have changed over the last few weeks, but it doesn't really feel like an emergency at this point. Everything has been behaving itself for the past two days, which doesn't mean it will continue but does make it harder to feel justified in getting an emergency appointment. If, however, the pain gets out of control again I will make the appointment if only to see whether there are any top-up meds I can use! I think I'm starting to turn into a complete wuss over the pain ;-)

[wadjet-theperv.livejournal.com]

You aren't a wuss at all. The constant pain you've been in would try anyone's patience. Don't feel in the least guilty about asking for an emergency appointment, if for no other reason than to get extra meds in case the pain gets worse. You have a chronic condition and you are in no way wasting their time. It's what they're there for. You work hard and pay your taxes, you've paid for the service they provide and I'm sure Dr M would be upset if he thought you weren't coming in because you didn't want to be a bother. *hugs*

[selenay]

Thanks for the *hugs*

I feel like I'm a wuss because, all told, I'm actually in less pain right now than I was a year ago. Except I've got afraid of being in that kind of pain again and seem to fall apart from less pain now. So, it's hard to gauge it. I think I'm just getting fed up with it.

So, I'll see how I'm going over the next two weeks and get an appointment with Dr. M if it's getting bad, but the broad picture is that I'm currently better off than I was. I just seem to have lost the ability to deal with it and I can't work out how I was able to function the way I was. And I'm scared of going back to that state again.