"My dislocated shoulder (continued)"

I wrote to you earlier in the year about my trip on Whitton High Street which gave me a dislocated shoulder. I also complimented The West Middlesex Hospital's A&E department for the sympathetic and efficient way I was treated and discharged. It is now 16 weeks since I sustained the injury and i have been visiting the Orthopaedic clinic regularly ever since. The shoulder having not healed properly and taking into account my still restricted movement on my last visit it was recommended that i have an MRI scan . I phoned the office of the Orthopaedic department a week later and was told my MRI had been assessed and that the consultant would like to see me again. (You should bear in mind the horrendous discomfort I am in and the fact that my whole lifestyle has changed since this injury) an appointment was duly made and I discovered I would have to wait another 2 weeks before an appointment in clinic. So on tenterhooks I waited until the appointed day. When I saw the consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon (who couldn't have been nicer) I was told I have a large tear in my rotator cuff and that he would refer me to another consultant who specialises in the shoulder. My point is, when the MRI was assessed It should have been decided then that I needed to see a shoulder specialist. The appointment was unnecessary The referral should have been made straight away without a pointless appointment being made. I also have my suspicions that that very same shoulder specialist may have been working in the very same clinic at the very same time I attended. The result? Yet another wait for an appointment, another no doubt a few weeks of worry, and pain. Please be aware that this is not a compaint about my care at the West Middlesex Hospital, but it is a compaint about the system. Malcolm