"Interface btween hospital and local care"

I had an ilostomy in February this year after 13 months of ulcerative colitis which did not stop flaring. In June an abcess developed under one of the keyhole scars and I went into Pinderfields to have it sorted. A consultant wanted to admit me from an outpatient clinic but was told there were no beds so I went home for 3 days. I was called to go in one evening, but when I arrived no one was expecting me and I waited ( with others they may have been expecting) for 5 hours. I was on the surgery list for 72 hours before I reached the top and was discharged 18 hours after surgery.

The district nurse service came and dressed the wound at home on alternate days ( including weekends) for 3 weeks but the service made me housebound as they could not tell me when they would come in any one day and if the wound dressing leaked then the "stay home" days changed. As I live in a village and drive to shop, go to meetings, see family etc, this was so frustrating that I agreed to dress the wound myself, as my GP's surgery practice nurse was on holiday.

The trouble started when I ran out of dressings. Everyone was very sympathetic, but it was not their job to sort it out. I made phonecalls to my GP, the practice nurse, the stoma clinic, the district nurses and was passed from one to another for two weeks after which I bought the dressings I neeed from my village chemist. Six weeks down the line I still have an open weeping wound which it seems to be no one's job to deal with. I am well educated, articulate and persistant. What is this system like for someone who is not?