"I am acting as an advocate for ..."

What could be improved

I am acting as an advocate for a patient who had to wait 12 months for a MRI scan that was only resolved after PALS were involved. The patient has now deteriorated so badly that they are restricted to the upstairs of their house getting around mainly in a wheelchair/ They are also in contnuous pain taking painkillers every 4 hours,

They were meant to be given an outpatients appointment for 3 months time which was actually made for 6 months and then cancelled and delayed a further 4 months. PALS managed to get this reduced from 10 months to 4 months. The patient then contacted the Consultants secretary pleading with her and managed to get the appointment in 2 months. The thing is that the problem was identified on the MRI scan and the patient would now like to proceed with corrective surgery rather than going backwards and forwards to outpatients. This has been made clear by PALS to the Consultant.

I think the hospital is overwhelmed with referrals and it was recently stated at the UCLH Board meeting that 'emergency admissions from referring hospitals were impacting on elective admissions'. So patients are being put further back in regard to appointments.