"So many hurdles for a simple procedure"

Anything else?

Thankfully a wheel chair was available on the last visit and I wait to see if this is maintained. But now to the main problem with the treatment of the 93 year old man I was helping. He visited his doctor in January and the GP correctly diagnosed the problem and referred him to hospital for treatment. We were then rung and given a choice of hospital and we chose Bolton as this was local. What we were not told was that Bolton did not have a designated surgeon and there would be a considerable delay. Had we been informed of this we would have chosen one of the other hospitals. The first appointment was on March 20th and the hospital doctor confirmed the GPs diagnosis and said there would be a swift appointment in out patients to deal with the cancer. The next appointment was on May 7th at 6pm and I queried with the consultant's secretary before the appointment whether this was for the operation. She assured me that it was. But on May 7th the surgeon confirmed the diagnosis of the GP and the hospital doctor and said that the next appointment would be for the operation. In the meantime we should see the medical photographer, however, the surgeon who was not normally working at Bolton did not know when or where this would take place! I again spoke to the secretary and queried why it was taking so long for the treatment to take place as this was a cancer and it had been originally diagnosed by the GP in January. She said the operation should be soon and that we should visit again on May 9th as the photographer would be at the hospital. We attended for the photo on the 9th. On Saturday May 25th the operation was carried out and the patient sent home. This was a Bank Holiday weekend. The dressing was just a small plaster and yet that evening the bleeding was copious. Another member of the family had to visit a late night chemist for dressings. On Tuesday after the bank Holiday we managed to contact tthe Distiict Nurse who was concerned that she had not been notified by the hospital and said that had she known cover was available from their service and she would have been in touch particularly as the patient was 93 years old. On a follow up visit to the hospital the surgeon was dismissive of the bleeding and said it was normal but if this was the case why didn't the hospital provide better dressing / give the patient /carer/district nurse clearer information? On June 4th we attended a dressings clinic run by nurses this was efficient and ran to time, however the nurse wanted the patient to see the surgeon on June 6th. This visit was chaotic. There are boards at the clinic to indicate who is in attendance and any delays in appointments. There was no indication of delay but as we sat there it became apparent that patients and carers were stopping nurses to enquire when they would be seen. It at last appeared that the clinic was 1 hour behind. Nurses were held up and the system was not used. Patients were annoyed - nurses were distracted.