"Having already seen my Doctor, ..."

Anything else?

Having already seen my Doctor, and him giving me a cortisone injection, for my painful shoulder,

I then saw a Specialist he gave me a cortisone injection and details were sent to the Physio Department, this was in July 2008. I waited 8 weeks for physio even though I had contacted the Physio Department several times and asked for an appointment date. I saw my Doctor and explained to him how much pain I was in and soon after received a call from the Physio Department asking me to call them to make an appointment.

There are two problems here,

1) When you telephone the Physio Department number there is an answerphone-how can you make an appointment? Although, I did finally get to speak with somebody after many calls.

2) I was left too long after my cortisone injection before treatment was given, I was told exercise needs to start early before the injection wears off. I have just had my third (and last) injection, luckily, I am receiving physio treatment every week at present.

I have experienced a few other problems with this department:

I was told to go to my Doctors surgery for treatment, this was not the case, I had to go to another Doctors surgery

I arrived for an appointment and was told nobody was there to give me treatment and my appointment should have been cancelled, the receptionist called the Physio and they would contact me, no such luck. So I started the telephone calls yet again.

All this has caused me great distress as I find difficulty in driving and working, in fact doing anything. This could have been avoided by having an earlier appointment, and look what it has cost the NHS.

Now 8 months later I am still in great pain, oh, I wish I was a private patient!