"Saddened at how impersonal their approach is"

My daughter was recently admitted to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, NHS GG&C, A&E after an 8-hour wait to be seen, when a kidney stone was found on her CT scan. They took an x-ray and determined that the stone was unlikely to pass on its own due to its size and that she would need a uteroscopy to remove it.

She was scheduled for surgery the next day but it did not take place due to other surgeries taking priority and she was put on the list for surgery. On the Friday morning they came to take her to theatre and on the way off the ward the nurse came running after them to stop them saying they had received a call to say she was to have a further x-ray first!

After waiting several hours for the x-ray and then a further couple of hours to have someone look at the x-ray, she was told the stone was no longer visible and due to her pain having subsided, they concluded it had probably passed on its own.

Much as this news was initially a relief, my daughter was sceptical!  She had been suffering for weeks with pain before she knew it was a kidney stone and the pattern with the pain had been a couple of days of extreme pain followed by a few days of a dull ache.  She had told the doctors this several times in the course of her stay. 

My daughter asked the junior doctor who delivered this news to check the x-ray again to be sure and also asked if she could see the x-rays herself.  The latter request was met with a degree of frustration from the Junior Doctor but they agreed to both look at the x-ray again and see if they can find a laptop to show my daughter the images.

After another lengthy wait the doctor returned to say the stone was not seen on the image and handed her the discharge report. We never did get to see the images for ourselves. 

You would think that is the end of the story, but unfortunately it is not! The pain came back again with a vengeance on the following Sunday.  On the Wednesday our GP called to say that they had received a report through from the hospital that the MDT had reviewed her x-rays and the stone was there after all and that she had been refereed for an urgent day case uteroscopy.  And so the waiting begins! 

The current Treatment Time Guarantee in NHSGG&C is 12 weeks from referral!  Urology happens to be one of the specialities that generally is longer!  So her life is now on hold again waiting for a date for surgery.  I am so very frustrated and disappointed by the way this was all handled.  Why didn't they contact her first instead of our GP?

The only communication my daughter has received was a standard letter she received 2 weeks after saying she was on the waiting list.  If this is urgent, why does she have to wait 12 weeks for the surgery!? They were the ones who misinterpreted the x-ray and now my daughter has to suffer, quite literally. Why did they not just readmit her right away when they discovered their error?

Because of the pain she has missed weeks of work and college and is extremely anxious and stressed about that.  The pain is so unpredictable that she can't make any commitment to going back in to work or college full time at this point.  The overall experience thus far has been awful.  She is now faced with suffering for at least another 12 weeks or going back to an already overwhelmed A&E in the hopes she will be readmitted and get the surgery. 

I am very saddened to see how little importance and value NHSGG&C put on listening to their patients and how impersonal their approach is.  A quick phone call directly to my daughter explaining what had happened and what was going to happen next would have gone a long way to alleviate some of the anxiety and stress she is feeling.  There is not even a way to contact the consultant or anyone else involved in her care to discuss it with.  All in all a very poor show on their part! I am no longer proud to say I work for the NHS.