Bad customer care at eye clinic dept

[Tracey167]

Hi all

I recieved my 1st appointment for the hospitals eye clinic in regards to my renopathy, but unfortunately the date and time i've been given would cause me problems because we are without a car and have to rely on a hours bus journey to the hospital and there is no way i would be able to get back to pick my kids up from school and i have no one who could look after them as my husband is my carer and has to be with me.

I recieved my letter monday morning and rang the appointments straight away it took me half an hour to get through and when i did finally manage to speak to someone i was told the person who made my appointment is not in yet and will ring me back later that day. Guess what they did'nt ring back, so i rang again tuesday morning first thing to be told again that person is not in today. They gave me this persons direct line to ring wednesday which i suppose is one good thing. So i rang today and finally got through to the correct person, i explained my situation hoping she would book me another appointment there and then over the phone and i could sort out a date which would be suited, but she told me she will cancell the appointment i have and will see what she can do. Well thanks for that now i don't have a clue whats going on will she ring me or send another appointment in the post which could then be a day or time that is not suited. I gonna give them a week to get back to me then i'm gonna ring back and speak to a manager it felt as if she did'nt have time and was rushing me off the phone.

Tracey167

 

[Unbeliever]

Just a thought Tracey but how about writing and stating times you would be available or the best times for you. Tha will take the pressure off the person a little - she may not have been able o sort things out over the phone at that time.

I undersand that in many hospitals almost all the reception staff are temporary with just one or two eperienced staff.
this is deliberate policy so that these saff can be got rid of quickly and cheaply if necessary. It follows hat the rare experienced person will be sorting out all sorts of problems and is moved from dept to dept. writing may mean that your query is dealt with more quickly.

All the eye clinics are very busy nowadays as more patients are being referred to hem for all sorts of conditions.
I know it is very worrying- I have been o the receiving end of some of tis confusion myself recently . It is especially difficult if you are new patient and not used o he system.
hey may surprise you and ge back to you quickly . They work in mysterious ways .

 

[the_anticarb]

Hi Tracey

That sounds like my eye clinic! I tried to phone them the other day and the reception people said i needed to speak to the macula department and gave me the number, guess what no one answered the phone so I just got put straight back to recption which gave me the number for macula which didn't answer so I got put through to reception again.....this cycle reiterated a couple more times before I gave up and kicked the kitchen table out of frustration!


Contrast this to my private experience - phoned back by a patient liasion officer as soon as i'd made an enquiry who checked the appointment was ok for me, phoned me back later to check they had all the right details, then greeted on arrival at the hospital and offered tea/coffee and basically treated like a first class plane passenger.....shame about the £200 price tag or I'd be doing that all the time!

I'm going to have to ring the eye hospital again this morning as they couldn't give me my next appointment time there and then, said they'd write to me but as it's quite urgent I don't trust them and want to check it out myself, I'll probably get put in a queue/impossible loop again - I wouldn't mind but when you're stressed about your condition and want to be reassured that you're in good hands it does not help.

Hope you get it sorted Tracey 167

 

[Unbeliever]

In your case anticarb I would ask to speak to the consultant's secretary. Its different once you have actually seen someone . Tracey is in a different category,

In my clinic certain appointments are made straight away and confimrmed by letter afterwards. With other procedures . which may require day admission to the ward they have to wait unil the surgeon's lists are compiled and then lsend you a appointment which you can obviously change if inconvenient,
A few months ago I was told I need a procedure quite urgently. I had to ring twice o chase it up and both imes was told it was on its way but there was lots of muttering about the post and changes, When It finally arrived the date was he same as I had been given over the telephone . The procedure wasn;t named but I knew from he venue metioned that they had me down for the wrong procedure. I took the view hat these hings happen and rang again to poin this out. To my utter amazement , the person in charge of the surgeon's lists insised hat I must have this procedure! She obviously couldn't accept that she might have made a mistake - or an assumption! I was trying o be reasonable but was incandescent. A less "experienced" patient would not have known this was the wrong procedure and would have had their ime wasted.
I had o be even more aggressive than she was . After several inutes arguing with her it transpired she hadn't even bothered to look at my records before arguing with me! When she did bother o do so she didn; even apologise.

When i evenually had the procedure - I complained , of course. they told me that a few other patients had acually urned up in the wriong place but they had managed o sort hings out. Knowing full well what goes on I would not have been happy with how this was done.
Since then , I have just called the dsecretary with any query. It is like entering a diffferent world.
I read on the hospital website from a patient's comment hat they are using an outside firm for heir outgoing mail and I think this is the cause of many problems. This is not confined to the hospital I attend. I suppose they have decided hat this is the bes place to save money. I wouldn' like o have to make these decisions.
The preception and post are vitally important as they are the first point of patient ciontact..
Its like with everything else - the hardes part is finding your way around the system. Good luck to you both with your enquiries,

 

[noblehead]

Tracey,

They'll probably write to you but don't leave it more than a week before getting back in touch.

Good luck!

 

[the_anticarb]

Well after getting though to the hospital apparantly I'm not due to be in clinic again til 8th May. Having been told i have florid retinopathy and I've been categorised as high risk, this is too long to wait for my next bout of laser (they did half my eye on Monday but only half the eye). I was clearly told by the consultant I needed laser asap, and I asked when I'd have the next session she said 2 weeks.

I have tried to contact the sec, no joy, left message.

I am seriously considering going private now, this is too important to be at the mercy of nhs bureaucracy. I'm just imagining all sorts of nasty things could happen in my eye if I am waiting til May.

I keep feeling sort of ok after the shock of Tuesday, then little things like this just knock me down again and I realise I'm not coping too well.

Does anyone know how much private laser may cost? I think just to have the peace of mind that I am being looked after properly would be worth its wait in gold at the moment. I also want to find out about avastin.

 

[noblehead]

AC,

The 2 weeks would be about right as they have to give the previous laser time to work but a 5 week wait seems a long time all things considered, my advice would be to pester the life out of the secretary and express to her your concerns at having to wait this length of time.

I don't know how much laser treatment would cost privately but imagine it will be expensive.

 

[the_anticarb]

Thank you Noblehead. I think I will go back to the private guy, as I can get in to see him again quite soon, and ask his opinion. If he thinks it should be done sooner then perhaps he can sort this with my nhs consultant as he does actually work in same department as her when he's an nhs doc. He can also give a quote for private work/avastin.

Its more the feeling that I am in a system that does not care about my needs that is upsetting me right now - if the worst happens and I lose sight that could have been prevented had I had laser earlier then I will never forgive myself for not going private, we can ill afford it but i think my parents will help in the circumstances.

I just can't understand how she said on tuesday that I was florid, high risk, that I needed laser asap and lots of it, and that the sessions would be at two weekly intervals and now my next clinic appt is six weeks later. She did say that it could be difficult at easter as a lot of the consultants were foreign and went home for the holidays. Great - so whether or not I lose my sight is dependent on someone else getting their easter holiday. Still- six weeks a long wait.

The NHS is a ****ing mess, diabetes care is patchy but then when the chips are down and you develop complications you really need to know they're doing all they can, not fitting you in around some doctor's easter holiday.

Its possible they've made an honest mistake and will change it so I will continue to pester secretary, but make another private appointment in the mean time.

Sorry for hijacking the thread OP!

 

[Helenababe]

I'm having the same kind of problems with my eye clinic. My last appointment was on 28th Dec. My specialist said he wanted to see me in 6 weeks time. I went to the nurse's desk and she said she would send me an appointment by post.

I waited, but no appointment. February came, so I rang the eye clinic. Kept getting automated message saying the staff were busy, and to leave a message on answering machine. I kept doing this for 2 weeks, but heard nothing.

I then decided to try ringing again. I was told I was in a queue. I was put on hold. I waited for 40 minutes, then hung up. It cost me nearly £4!
Then, I rang the main desk at hospital and asked to be put through to my specialist's secretary. It was an answering machine. I left a message. 2 weeks went by, no responce.

2 weeks ago I had to go to see my GP and complain about it and he has had to write to my specialist. Still waiting for an appointment. I'm disgusted with the way I've been just 'left' in limbo!

Helena

 

[the_anticarb]

Helenababe that is really shocking, although not too uncommon I'm afraid. I hope you are not suffereing from anything that a few more weeks delay will not really affect.

 

[Unbeliever]

I know how you feel Helenababe. After I nearly came to {verbal ] blows with the appointments clerk I was prepared o turn up at the next weekly clinic where the consultant was likely to be and ask him to intervene.

It is often the caase I find, that the consultant will say that he wants o see me wihin a certain time scale but appointments are not available . The clinic I attens which is not the geeral eye clinic is only held on Tuesday mornings so this is not altogether surprising. I rarely complain because I would rather wait and see someone who actually knows what he is doing rather than a less qualified stand in. I learnt the hard way that the important thing is to have the treatment performed correctly than to have it done quickly.

Anticarb, two weeks is the minimum time laser akes to work. Depending on the intensity of the laser 4 weeks isn't unusual.
I think one shot of avastin costs the NHS £800 pounds.

The hing about it is that it only works in about 28^ of patients . Even when it works it sometimes has o be repeated several times.
if you have both eyes treated privately -and they will probably advise lucentis which is even more expensive the cost may be substanial.
It might tbe an idea to try it on the NHS to begin with .

 

[the_anticarb]

Hi Unbeliever - I know you say that it is better to wait for the correct treatment than quick treatment, but what is scaring me is that my retinopathy is very florid and fast developing, so I don't know if I can afford this wait. If all these new vessels have sprung up in less than three months, what is to say what will happen in another six weeks? The consultant said I needed laser asap and when I asked how long between sessions she said two weeks. This makes me think I am an urgent case. I would not be at all suprised if the reason for the delay is down to lack of NHS resources - she did say that at Easter it could be a longer wait due to doctors not being around. I don't want this to affect my prognosis!

Whether I have avastin or not (and if it only works in 28% of patients then maybe I shouldn't, at least not privately), i think I need to make sure i get laser on my left eye within a few weeks, and if the NHS cannot fit me in then I will go private. I don't think it will cost more than £1000 per session.

I have this disease and if the doctors do all they can and they can't treat it, well that's fate - but if I suffer because the NHS couldn't do it's best for me, well that's inexcusable and worth paying private to avoid such a situation. i just feel at the moment like no one is really responsible for my care and it's all a bit haphazard, which is stressing me out. Eg on Tuesday they nearly weren't going to do laser then, as they didn't think they could fit me in even though consultant said I needed it ASAP - eventually I hung around all afternoon and they managed to fit it in, but I felt like I had to fight for it, and I shouldn't have to feel like that.

Anyway i have finally got thru to the secretary, she will check with the consultant if it is a mistake or if anything can be done to bring it forward so it all depends on that really, but I am not waiting six weeks for more laser!

 

[the_anticarb]

Helenababe, do you mind me asking which hospital you're attending? It's not Manchester Eye Hospital is it? That's where I am, but perhaps they are all run (or not run it seems) the same.

 

[Unbeliever]

I don' think here are any rights and wrongs and every siuation is different.Of course anticarb. You have to do whatever is bes for you and will set your mind at rest. I don't suppose the stress is helping you at all.
All any of us can do o here is to post our own experiences in he hope it may help others, We all have to make up our own minds according o our own situations - and everyone's disease is different.

I have eperienced visiting consultants running out of the rooom in horror to arrange urgent treatment afer taking one loook at my retina. Without even asking me for my consent. This treatment was about the worst hing that ever happened to me.
Ruined my retina caaused a cataract and has limited the possibilities for further treatnment.
Given another few weeks I would have been reated differently. That was four years ago. I have long accepted that I will probably lose the dsight in this eye because here is little room for more laser.

I have had 5 injections administered by a surgeon who is not as competent as he might be. Three of these involved the full operating theatre procedure and partial blindness for a few weeks following the procedure. All these procedures were totally ineffective - and alll had been rushed through. The same procedures carried out by a more experienced surgeon have always been successful. On one occasion I had to argue with this person at the door of the operaing theatre because he hadn't is otally subothered to read the notes and was perepared o inject me with he wrong chemical. On another he broke he needle in my eye - agony!

All this was in the name of urgency. It has often proved counter-productive for me . So you can see why I feel as I do.

I sincerely hope you find a satisfactory way to deal with your problems and that your experience is trouble free.
I also hope that further treatment proves o be unnnecessary for you.
.

 

[the_anticarb]

Update - I heard back from the secretary and apparantly the NHS consultant had specified she wanted to see me again in six weeks, so it's not due to a lack of clinic availablity. I'm not a medical expert, but cannot understand this - on Tuesday it was urgent that I had laser asap as my condition was developing fast and she was 'concerned'.
Now they have done half my eye but want to wait another six weeks to do the other half?????? How well my eye gets better depends on how well it responds to the laser treatment, well it won't respond if I don't actually have the full treatment will it?

So, it's back to Optegra for a second opinion from the private doctor. This is too important to mess around with.

 

[Unbeliever]

Obviously you have little trust in the consultant. If she specified six weeks and could have recalled you earlier there must have been a reason. You have probably had the most vital parts of the laser surgery done now ..She may well have been waiing for the eye to heal so that it was clear for the next lot.

As there is is a limit on the amount of laser they can perform they want o get it right. Their idea of urgency and the patient's are often different. I think I might have been inclined to ask for an explanation. Sounds as if there may have been a clinical reason for the apparent fdelay.

The trouble is that we have such problems fighting the system in the NHS that we can't tell whether the problems are administrative or medical.
I know you will not be able to accept what anyone says and must work through this yourself so it is probably worth your while seeking another opiion. You will also be able to discuss your fears about the ype of retinopahy you have. Discussion time on the NHS can be very limited.

I hope the private consultant can allay your frears. Laser treament does take time to work fully depending upon what it is used for. I have noticed they are far more cautious with it now than when I sarted with it. I wish they had been more cautious then.

Do let us know how you get on, We are always being old to seek help immediately aren't we> When we do we are then frusrated and scared by the apparenly laid back nd dilatiory response fromthe NHS.
There have been several posts on the forum lately by folk confused by this atltude.

You dash along there with your emergency and are upset o find that it is an everyday occurrence to hem . This is where private medecine really wins. they understand the difference a concerned attitude makes. The treament may not differ but you are made to feel you are being taken seriously.

I hope Optegra manage to reassure you. Its agony I know,

 

[noblehead]

So, it's back to Optegra for a second opinion from the private doctor. This is too important to mess around with.

If anything it will give you some reassurance that a six week wait is acceptable, just strange how the consultant said you were to come back in 2 weeks to complete the treatment and now it's a 6 week wait :?

 

[the_anticarb]

So, it's back to Optegra for a second opinion from the private doctor. This is too important to mess around with.

If anything it will give you some reassurance that a six week wait is acceptable, just strange how the consultant said you were to come back in 2 weeks to complete the treatment and now it's a 6 week wait :?

Tell me about it! Very strange! I don't trust them NH, I don't really feel like anyone is properly looking after me - very mixed messages. I wish I could believe that they don't want to see me for six weeks because I'm not that serious but that's not consistent with what was said on Tues. Last time I had my rt eye lasered it was two weeks apart (and that eye not as bad as this one)- I believe that is the standard?
I'm having extreme stress symptoms due to all of this, I just feel like no one is listening to me or treating it seriously. It's a difficult enough situation as it is.
If there's a good enough medical reason to wait six weeks then fine, the private doctor can explain this. But I can't think for the life of me what it will be! I think I will just end up going private to laser this eye at least, it's worth it just for the sake of not being a seething mass of stress for the next six weeks worrying about what is going on inside my eye and if I am going to wake up one morning wiht a hemmorage or detachment.

 

[the_anticarb]

Obviously you have little trust in the consultant. If she specified six weeks and could have recalled you earlier there must have been a reason. You have probably had the most vital parts of the laser surgery done now ..She may well have been waiing for the eye to heal so that it was clear for the next lot.

As there is is a limit on the amount of laser they can perform they want o get it right. Their idea of urgency and the patient's are often different. I think I might have been inclined to ask for an explanation. Sounds as if there may have been a clinical reason for the apparent fdelay.

The trouble is that we have such problems fighting the system in the NHS that we can't tell whether the problems are administrative or medical.
I know you will not be able to accept what anyone says and must work through this yourself so it is probably worth your while seeking another opiion. You will also be able to discuss your fears about the ype of retinopahy you have. Discussion time on the NHS can be very limited.

I hope the private consultant can allay your frears. Laser treament does take time to work fully depending upon what it is used for. I have noticed they are far more cautious with it now than when I sarted with it. I wish they had been more cautious then.

Do let us know how you get on, We are always being old to seek help immediately aren't we> When we do we are then frusrated and scared by the apparenly laid back nd dilatiory response fromthe NHS.
There have been several posts on the forum lately by folk confused by this atltude.

You dash along there with your emergency and are upset o find that it is an everyday occurrence to hem . This is where private medecine really wins. they understand the difference a concerned attitude makes. The treament may not differ but you are made to feel you are being taken seriously.

I hope Optegra manage to reassure you. Its agony I know,

UB perhaps I would have more trust in her if she could give a consistent message! I specifically asked her how far apart the sessions would be and she said 2 weeks maybe 3! As the private doctor works alongside her in NHS perhaps he will be able to find out the medical rationale and as you say, reassure me. Or maybe he will have a different opinion. Either way it will not harm to get a second opinion and if his differs from hers, then I'll be glad I went to see him.
My whole experience with the NhS eye hospital last week was so horrible, I think in any case I just need someone to reassure me and explain the whole thing to me without me feeling like I'm being a burden on their time.
Thanks for your support.

 

[Unbeliever]

Of course you need this. It can't be offered on the NHS and will be worth every pennny if it helps. How often have I wanted to sit down with someone and discuss the implicaions of it alll with someone who knows what hey are alking about. instead of having o glean information here and here and work it all out for myself first and then try to get confirmation.

I have often despaired. My consulytant will answer questins succinctkly honestly and in layman's terms but having the opportunity to ask is another matter/
Most of the consultation is taken up by eaminations and comparisons with previous scans and angiograms. I often find that just as I am about to ask a question someone is wheeled in from A & E or here is another interruption fronm junir staff seeking advice or something of that nature.

On a few occasions I have even considerd sopping treatment when I have been forced to see people I don't trust/ I fond ,however, that this consultant still keeps an eye on thngs and I trust him to do so now. Trust takes time to grow though doesn't it?

Do let us know how it goes.