Fun and games with the NHS
Back in mid-March, my GP referred me for surgery. Nothing serious, and nothing embarassing either, but I am not going to spell it out.
Anyway, my first appointment was slated for the 1st of April. Pretty fast moving, all things considered. Some way down the line this was spiked by the hospital concerned, and I was offered the 20th of May. Marvellous, thinks I, although the central appointments department - based in Milton Keynes of somesuch, then wrote to me in late April saying that the appointment - not dated - had been cancelled. I assumed that 20/5 was now no longer happening, but was prevailed upon to ring to check. Lo and behold this actually referred to the 1/4 appointment, a mere few weeks late. A great use of the post etc, I am sure you will agree.
Last week I was again written to, and was told that 20/5 was no longer an option and was told that this was due to cancer admissions taking priority. Since what I have is a long way from being life threatening, and rates as little more than a minor nuisance, that would seem reasonable enough, if (and only if) cancer surgeons deal with the same minor procedure I am going in for. Perhaps a little unlikley, yes?
I have now been offered the 8th of July, not that I expect that to happen either. If it does, however, that is a mere 18 weeks from first referral, and I believe what is supposed to be the targeted maximum wait....
Anyway, my first appointment was slated for the 1st of April. Pretty fast moving, all things considered. Some way down the line this was spiked by the hospital concerned, and I was offered the 20th of May. Marvellous, thinks I, although the central appointments department - based in Milton Keynes of somesuch, then wrote to me in late April saying that the appointment - not dated - had been cancelled. I assumed that 20/5 was now no longer happening, but was prevailed upon to ring to check. Lo and behold this actually referred to the 1/4 appointment, a mere few weeks late. A great use of the post etc, I am sure you will agree.
Last week I was again written to, and was told that 20/5 was no longer an option and was told that this was due to cancer admissions taking priority. Since what I have is a long way from being life threatening, and rates as little more than a minor nuisance, that would seem reasonable enough, if (and only if) cancer surgeons deal with the same minor procedure I am going in for. Perhaps a little unlikley, yes?
I have now been offered the 8th of July, not that I expect that to happen either. If it does, however, that is a mere 18 weeks from first referral, and I believe what is supposed to be the targeted maximum wait....
Labels: Health and inefficiency
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on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 at 1:40 pm.
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Just linked to you from NDS.
Cheers AC1.
Oh, the NHS is like all state bureacracies, slow to move and impossible to divert once set on course. Good lick, you'll need it!
The list works like this.
They give you a date, so satisfy the statisticians. They change the date, because it's too busy, but it doesn't matter because it's the first appointment that counts for all the forms they have to fill in.
(I trust JuliaM doesn't really hope you have a good lick!)
Do you want me to cure you? I am a wise woman after all? and very blogger friendly
It's not the cancer surgeons who are the bottleneck, it's the beds.
They have got rid of so many beds, and they run the others at >90% occupancy, that the least unexpected disruption (and why would that happen, in a Health Service? Be reasonable!) causes a domino effect of cancellations.
Such high occupancy rates also increase the rate of hospital-acquired infections, but there isn't a target for that yet, so it doesn't matter.
Why are they getting rid of Beds? Because they cannot get rid of staff.
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