"Service provided after a knee injury"

My partner injured his knee in March this year playing football, he attended the A&E that night and was told he had ripped a very small muscle in his knee which had a limited blood supply so may take time to heal.

He was given crutches and pain relief and sent home. The injury failed to improve so he attended his doctor and was referred to a physio. When he attended his session this took several weeks.

As there was no improvement after over 2 months they said he may need an operation in the knee but would need an MRi scan. He was told the appointment would be through in about 2 -3 weeks, he waited. He was referred for the scan in the middle of May, when he still had heard nothing in the middle of June he called them back to see what was happening only to be told that he had not been referred in the first place.

He went back to the physio department and questioned this, they apologised and told him the would take his case notes up to the MRI department and mark it as urgent in the circumstances. Nearly two weeks later there was another call and still no appointment, he was advised that there was a backlog and the physio team should never have told us it would be dealt with urgently. At this point it felt like he was getting nowhere. He stressed again the urgency of the matter and asked to be put on the cancellation list etc.

2 weeks later he got his appointment. He attended and the MRI was completed, he was told by the MRI staff to call the next day and speak to the superintendent for his results. He was happy that the situation was coming to a resolution.

The next day he called the number he was provided with only to be told, the MRI team should never have told him to call for his results today and that they would take 4 - 6 weeks. Needless to say he was disappointed. He has called again today to see about the results only to be passed from pillar to post and be met with an answering message which says they cannot take calls at the physio department (within opening hours).

The lack of timely care for this injury has resulted in him being on light duties at work for 5 months. He is awaiting the results of the test to determine if he can return to normal duty and the whole issue has cost him over £3000 in lost earnings.

I hope learning can be taken from this poor experience going forward. Departments should provide correct information around timescales and take responsibility for error instead of passing the buck to another team.

Thanks.