"Gynaecology- Outpatients Department"

I attended the outpatient’s department on the 11/05/2016 for my second gynaecology consultation. I arrived at 3:50PM for my 4:00PM appointment. During a very long wait I noticed I was the last person in that waiting area to be seen, as everyone else had gone before me. I was eventually seen at 5:15PM, which in my opinion is an appalling amount of time to wait. We expected a 45-minute wait as stated on the board, but not a 1h 15m wait.

After I was called I had no apology what so ever from the staff about the amount of time I had been waiting. I was then led to a room where a consultant was rushing around sorting out folders from previous patients. The consultant told Myself and my Mother (who accompanied me to my appointment) to sit down while they continued to sort out folders with various different patients names on- I know if my folder was out during another person’s consultation I would not be pleased due to it being a breach of confidentiality. The consultant was not the same consultant who had seen me previously, this would have not bothered me if they had actually introduced themselves, which the second consultant failed to do.

The consultant eventually sorted out the folders and got my own out and said "What's going on?" on which I replied "I feel no better"...thinking that they had read my file; unfortunately, I was sadly mistaken. They then laughed and said that was not what they meant. The consultant then went on to ask about the whole reason I was there to see them. They then asked me questions which I could even see where written on the file they had in front of them. They then decided all the decisions and predictions the previous consultant had made where completely wrong, so all previous plans that I had gotten my head around where scrapped which was very frustrating.

During the very short consultation which I was hoping was to arrange a laparoscopic operation was now about tackling something completely different, which was not the problem I was initially was referred for.

Every time I tried and my Mother tried to ask something about my problem and what would now be happening with it, the consultant just diverted and ignored it- they were not interested one bit. I am assuming this was because they were wanting to go home as they were rushing us and not even listening or acknowledge what I was saying.

My experience at the RVI previously for my problem has been good apart from waiting time, once again.

As a result of my experience at the RVI outpatient’s department for gynaecology; I am now choosing to go down the route of a private consultation, due to the failure to acknowledge my needs and pay attention to my file.

I am extremely, extremely disappointed.