"Trying to get my toddler seen"

It's still going on.

My 2yr old was seen by a GP back in April 2012. They said to just show up at A&E on Sat. "it's a 2min procedure". Got to A&E Sat, they said that no paediatric surgeons work on weekends but that we could try the children's hospital.

Drive to suggested hospital (over county line) where they wouldn't even look at him as he wasn't in pain right at that moment.

Monday, called GP to see if he had raised the referral (which he assured us will be ready & on file by the Sat). He had not. I asked for a Doc to call back so we can raise a referral. I was informed that they need to have a meeting about cost!! I said I'd pay for it myself right then, I was then informed it was a formality but it had to happen before he can be referred.

MY 2 YEAR OLD IS IN PAIN! 5 days later I got a call from a GP to get a description of what was wrong (what was the point of the 1st visit?). A couple of days later I called back to see if it had been sent & who our consultant would be. They didn't even know where it had been sent.

Lots of ringing round I found the correct consultant & spoke to his secretary who told me to tell the GP to send the referral to her. I did & they said they couldn't as it had already been sent to central processing. A week later got a letter saying to see a consultant at a different hospital.

We went to the appointment only to be told that he couldn't take my son's case as he was too young! Can they not read his age before sending us on another pointless journey? Obviously not. The consultant sat there and typed a letter to the correct consultants secretary (the one I talked to a couple of weeks before). We had a consultation with him 3 weeks ago, where I was told that a letter will be sent with an appointment time 3-6 weeks later. I informed him that I'm self employed and can drop everything if there are any cancelations, he took my number.

I called yesterday as we've still not received an operation date letter. After getting put back to the switchboard 4 times as they didn't seem to hear or know where to send me, I left a distressed message with a secretary's answer phone, who called back a couple of hours later with the correct extension number, which I called. I asked about the letter to which the response was "what letter?". I explained & they said they haven't got to it yet (three weeks later). I run a business, it is not hard to look in a diary and type one line with a time & date. I wouldn't have minded if it was 6weeks later as we're are half way though that wait now just for the letter! They said they'll get it sorted.

I don't believe them & I'll be calling everyday until my toddler, who is regularly in pain, gets the operation he needs.