At the beginning of May I was admitted to Bromley hospital via a&e with extreme abdominal pain. I have endometriosis & have had several laps before (& have had appendix out). Whilst there i was told they couldn't get my hospital notes from east surrey, I was told even though I was in severe pain, (taking morphine, tramadol, paracetamol, nortrypaline & temporarily cathetised due to urine retention) I would be discharged from hospital & an urgent referral would be made to the gynae team at East Surrey whose care I was under previously. I asked if I could be transferred to my notes/staff who knew my case instead & was told that that was not 'cost effective', not sure the NICE guidelines of the patients right to apropriate treatment meeting their needs is being met here? I called the secretary of my previous consultant to check that they had received the paperwork which they had, & I was reassured it would be brought to the consultants attention. A week later, I called back to be told that it had been recategorised from urgent to routine, even though the consultant had not seen the level of pain I was in. What's more, due to the urine retention, I had to come off of the painkillers, so was in unbearable pain. During this time my gp contacted the hospital to say that they believed I needed to be seen urgently and to reconsider the categorisation of my appointment. I was also told I was on the cancellation list. For the whole of June/July I had to call each week (sometimes twice) to see if anything was available as I was in agony & couldn't work. I was finally seen by someone in the consultants team at the end of July, over 2 months after leaving hospital! I am a teacher & this was the start of the school holiday. The gynae team told me that they were aware I'd had to wait & it had impacted on work & they would do what they could to fit it in during the 6 week holiday. Again, I was reassured I was on a cancellation list. Again, I called every week to chase & was eventually told don't call us, we'll call you. I am fuming as I finally got my "pre-op tests" done in week 5 of the holiday. I couldn't get the blood tests done as there is no date still for my op, meaning that this was a waste of time as they told me info I already knew & asked me for info they already have from the last op, & I've still got to go back in. This paperwork exchange could have happened via the post weeks ago. It also means it will have to continue to impact on work. Furthermore, at my pre-op, I was told that they had me on the waiting list for Crawley but would have to change it to East surrey, meaning I had been waiting for weeks on the wrong waiting list & have had to start all over again. I personally think it is totally unacceptable for someone to be admitted into hospital in agony, be discharged & have to wait 3 months on pain relief & still not have an operation date. I don't know if there are any NICE guidelines on waiting time but this is totally unacceptable.
"Unacceptable wait"
About: East Surrey Hospital / Gynaecology East Surrey Hospital Gynaecology RH1 5RH
Posted via nhs.uk
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