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selenaySome 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.
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.
