"I give up, there is no point in going on..."

What I liked

Nice clean looking hospital.

What could be improved

Put an x-ray option in the departments form above, that is what I was there for but couldn't find it in the option lis.

Well now, I attended for an x-ray that I had been sent there for by my GP. That went fine, in and out in no time, no problems at all really. Apart from the marathon walk to the x-ray dept but hey, can't have everything.

Now, to follow on from my comment below about the pain management service.

The comment left for me said "we would strongly urge you to contact our PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison Service) team so that we can work together to resolve your issues".

(Continued below....)

Anything else?

I told my GP about what had happened at the pain management clinic and he also mentioned the PALS so when I was finished with my x-ray, I was on my way out when I saw a sign above a door for pals so, against my better instincts, I went in.

No idea really what I expected from it, maybe just register a complaint and have it disappear down a black hole I suppose. What I didn't expect was the utter indifference at my experience with the pain management service. The lady I saw said that she could not change the clinical decision by the consultant and despite me repeating three times that I was not interested in having the decision changed I just wanted to make a complaint and hopefully someone somewhere may be emptying a bin and come across a bit of paper with my complaint on it.

Maybe they would then decide to take it up so that perhaps, just maybe, some kind of action could be taken to try and avoid anyone else having to wait nine months to get an appointment with the very clinic that they desperately needed some help from to manage their chronic pain.

Not to be stuck having to be referred by a physiotherapist and that getting up the consultants nose and the person who suffers from it is the patient.

Ah but I digress I was complaining, this time, about the utter indifference from pals.

The lady there just didn't seem to comprehend that someone could have a grievance and had been advised to contact them for some kind of advice on how to complain. She just couldn't get past the point of saying she couldn't change the consultants decision. That was not what I wanted nor was it what I was complaining about. I was complaining about the unproffessional behaviour of the consultant and the treatment, or lack of it, that I had received.

Perhaps consultants are allowed to do no wrong and I as a mere patient had no place in complaining about the treatment.AppointmentsComplaintsServiceX-rayPain managementX-rayConsultantsReferralsCleanlinessConductPhysiotherapists