"Urgent appointment"

In May 2015 my husband who has impaired vision in one of his eyes, woke up to find that his ‘good’ eye had lost vision and he was unable to see. Visit to GP and optician that day led to urgent referral to eye department at Royal Gwent the following morning. The attention and thoroughness of the staff was excellent. A total of 22 hours was spent there during the next 5 days and very little of this time was spent waiting around. Staff were fabulous. Numerous tests carried out and he was seen by a variety of people.

The following week he was sent for an MRI scan which again was carried out with no fuss and on time. An appointment had been made for him to someone 5 days later to determine what had caused his loss of vision.

This appointment was cancelled and another made, which again was cancelled and subsequently no less that 7 appointments have been made and then cancelled (some as late as a few hours beforehand). It is now end of September and his urgent referral still waited with our next appointment having just been cancelled yet again! !

We have tried emailing the appointments department to explain that his appointment is not a regular one – they do not even acknowledge receipt of the email. I have tried ringing but all they say is that we can ring them to cancel on this number but that is all.

As far as the Gwent are concerned my husband is still blind and cannot drive or go to work (however, we managed to get our optician to declare his sight ok to now drive and return to work).

We are concerned that the MRI scan may have shown something that needs attention or treatment or maybe there is nothing at all – but living with this hanging over us for 5 months now is a worry.

Losing your eye sight overnight so dramatically is a very scary thing and we need this concluded by your fabulous staff – HOWEVER, the appointment system is diabolical and someone somewhere needs to get a grip and sort out the system.