"The Charing Cross Urology Department is clinicaly..."

What I liked

The Surgeon - expert in his field.

What could be improved

At the time of my visit everything was fine. My complaint is about what didn't happen next.

I took a completed form to the admissions office for the operation the surgeon intended to carry out. The procedure required funding from the PCT of my residence Hounslow. The surgeon had advised me that it may take six months to get the funding. It should be no problem because the procedure was one that had already been approved earlier. The first attempt failed and the new operation was to try again.

In July I became concerned about the long wait. I called Admissions and was told the delay was because Hounslow was holding things up. I called the Urology department to be told again that Hounslow was the problem.

A few days ago I decidednto check with Hounslow PCT. It had no record but suggested that it would be an IFR at Ealing since Hounslow, Ealing & Richmond worked together. Confusingly for me it hast been passed back to Hounslow PCT who have asked who at Charing Cross made the request.

Today I was able to talk to the surgeon's secretary who told me that there was no record of any request.

This is an absolute disgrace. I am a patient awaiting surgery and now discover that 6 months after I took my form to Admissions nothing whatever has been done by anyone to follow up in any way. This lack of administrative care may not be the fault of the staff if there is no procedure in place to keep patients informed of every aspect of their care including applications involved.

Anything else?

I am angry and distressed to have wasted 6 months. I have no idea at all of what needs to be done, to get my operation under way, yet I have had to be proactive to get this far. The clinical teams need effective support and patients need to be better informed and involved. If you want to know how to do it may I suggest you visit the day surgery unit at West Middlesex Hospital. I had a hernia repaired there and marvelled at how well organised they were.