"Rheumatology dept failure"

My 86 year old mother, who is virtually immobile, moved to the Chelmsford area in September 2021 due to ill health. Up until this time she had been receiving a six monthly injection to help with her osteoporosis. 

I have been trying to get her this injection since last year.

The NHS insisted she needed to see a rheumatologist in Chelmsford before her injections could start again. Fair enough, I thought. However, we are still waiting for her to have an injection! 

We were sent an appointment which was in Braintree some time ago and she was too sick to go so far. We had another appointment, and then rheumatology cancelled it for no reason. In the summer she had a fall and broke her wrist and leg, that led to her having to cancel the next allocated appointment as she was too poorly to go.

I asked our GP if he could administer the injection. He said he could, and was willing to come to the care home to do it. However, because of the bureaucracy involved in the system, we were told by Broomfield Hospital that this wasn’t possible. 

We were then sent an appointment in error, which was retracted, then finally I was told mum could have a telephone consultation to save her having to travel to the hospital. We were sent a date and time. Fantastic! Success at last! Nearly a year on, but a result nonetheless.

Mum waited for the call. It never came. Then we were told that she hadn’t actually attended her appointment. They denied that a telephone appointment had ever been set up. As I had this planned phone consultation in writing, I was more than a little peeved, especially as rheumatology then proceeded to write to mum’s GP saying mum had failed to attend her appointment. Clearly untrue.

Mum has a complete record of all the Denosumab injections she has ever had in her Bone Passport which is readily available to see.  She has had the necessary blood test which is needed before the injection can be administered ……yet still we wait.

For me, this experience has shown how disjointed the system is and how much time and money is wasted. In my view, it also demonstrates a lack of accountability. You can never find out who exactly is making the mistakes, so how can this ever be fixed?

As for mum, she sits in her chair and waits. And waits. Maybe next year?