"I liked the initial contact from ..."

What I liked

I liked the initial contact from consultant, despite a prolem in reading a CD with graphic details to my problem (Kidney Stone) he was able to assess me and suggest a course of action for future visits. Coming from the Isle of Wight, any visit costs from £15 to £35 if a chaperone is required, so to get concise action is important. the last thing a patient needs is repeat visits when one will do.

What could be improved

From the first day of treatment it has been bad. Told to go to a ward for 7:30 get a visit from a chap @ 8:45 to be told I was las on the list. Little in the way of contact other than varifying info until 11:45, with nurse having to extremely rush the paper work required, wrist bands and to be given tablets I take on a regular basis!

The Lithotripter crew were waiting for me to arrive, with another patient booked in for 12:30. The second patients crew, were annoyed at the hold up (were they looking after a private patient I wonder?, they tone and urgency implied suggested so) The drugs, as mentioned at the time, weren't strong enough, the Lithotripter treatment had to be abandoned. I returned to the ward, with the nurse looking after me, who left to find out the next course of action. Result! I would be given Morphine in the afternoon and treated the same day-

Wrong, was told the machine broken down and I'd have to go home.

My 2nd and 3rd schedualled visits were to be rearranged from the original 2 weeks and 4 weeks from this visit. They changed to 6weeks and 2 weeks after that. Why the extra weeks waiting?

The second visit saw me pushed from department to department without a clue where I really should be. Finally I end up in X-Ray, where its was discovered my notes were missing, and no treatment would occur as a result.

2 x£35 travelling costs and kidney stone still untouched, I'm a low income earner.

I find that generally complaining against the NHS unsettling, I'm usually a tollerent man, &

this whole episode is testing that beyond anything I've experienced before. Yes we are human and make mistakes. But this has been a whole sequence of error after error. It is said that kidney stone is as close as a man can get to child birth, I've now been in labour for 10 months.

I was diagnosed the same day as Peter Mandelson (deputy PM) who had his stone removed on the same day in October 08, I didn't expect that, but I didn't expect this either.

Anything else?

Please don't blame the move to QA. If you can't move a department seamlessly, close it for a couple of days and do it properly. Having seen my GP about this, I was offered the opportunity to go elsewhere. I only want the stone removed, I really don't want another 2-3 months waiting, to be seen, assessed and treated. 2-3 hours can seem like a lifetime. The thought of 18 weeks wait in October 2008 was horrendious at the time. I've now done twice that and really am seriously getting tired of the whole thing.

I have family who work in the NHS and they assure me that this isn't typical, but nonetheless, they are angry that this doesn't appear to have the urgency it deserves.