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Hospital appointments stopped since Covid

jp619

jp619

Active Member
Messages
28
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi there. I was wondering, what are your experiences with hospital checkups since the Covid Pandemic?

I live in Worcester, and the services seem to have pretty much ground to a halt. Pre-Covid, I had regular 6-monthly checkups at a hospital diabetic clinic where I could see doctors and nurses. Understandably, that stopped when we all had to stay at home. Initally I had a phone appointments, albeit few and far between. But now even those have dried up. I haven't even asked to have a HBA1C by the diabetic team for three years.

This seems pretty outrageous to me. The rest of the world seems to be operating normally. My younger son is diabetic and the childrens services have continued throughout. I've been a type-1 diabetic for over 35 years, and have always had what I believe to be good care up until Covid. I'm at the point where I could potentially start to see long-term complications... and yet no-one seems interested. It's as though I'm no longer a part of anything.

Are type-1 diabetics experiencing the same across the rest of the country, or is it just my local service?

Thanks in advance!
 
I am in Cambridgeshire and have been going to Addenbrookes since 2003. My experience has been very much the same. Hospitals have decided to nudge patients into thinking pandemic mode is the new normal and that to actually visit a hospital and see a real doctor is some kind of outdated indulgence.

I actually have a check-up on Monday but that's my first appointment since November 2021. Every appointment is telephone by default unless you ask them to change it, which I have. So it's gone from two thorough hospital appointments a year to one telephone call a year, and we're supposed to regard that as healthcare.

It would be nice if I could see the face of the doctor I am talking to, just as I did during the sixteen years from 2003 to 2019. Are we saying for those sixteen years it was reckless? Apparently that would be unsafe even though I conduct my life without a mask at all other times and I haven't been killed by that yet.

I would advise you to phone your GP surgery, ask to speak to the diabetic nurse and tell him or her what's going on. You could probably get a check-up there so at least you have it done.
 
I live "somewhere in the South West" (sorry, my concern about sharing personal information on a public forum won't let me be more specific).
I have been very lucky. My annual face to face diabetes clinics returned last year.
During the height of the pandemic, they were virtual but the blood tests continued to be taken at the local GP surgery as usual so my HBA1C results are less than 6 months old (even thought my appointment ares 12 months apart, I do get blood tests twice a year).
At my request, this year's annual review, was remote as I was travelling for wrk on the day.

As I get the blood tests and I am used to working remotely through work (I worked from home for years before anyone mentioned "coronavirus"), I am happier saving time and shoe leather (the quickest way to get to my hospital-based clinic is walking).
 
I don’t think they are saying it was reckless, just admitting technology has moved on and a face to face hospital appointment is no longer necessary. I cover everything I need to discuss every 9 months with my consultant. He has my Libre results in front of him. Always rings on time and is thorough. I visit my Gp yearly for all other checks. I have email access to DNs at the hospital and they always get back to me in 24 hours.
They were moving to this model way before the pandemic and I was reluctant. But have now whole heartedly embraced it. No more outrageous parking charges at the hospital. I walk to my Gp saving fuel costs and damage to the environment. For me a win win.
 
becca59 said:
I don’t think they are saying it was reckless, just admitting technology has moved on and a face to face hospital appointment is no longer necessary. I cover everything I need to discuss every 9 months with my consultant. He has my Libre results in front of him. Always rings on time and is thorough. I visit my Gp yearly for all other checks. I have email access to DNs at the hospital and they always get back to me in 24 hours.
They were moving to this model way before the pandemic and I was reluctant. But have now whole heartedly embraced it. No more outrageous parking charges at the hospital. I walk to my Gp saving fuel costs and damage to the environment. For me a win win.
Click to expand...
Let us rejoice that it is possible still to talk to a human GP on the phone, as in a few years we may have nothing more to consult than some machine-generated voice driven by a million lines of computer code (being your new GP) dredging plausible clinical inferences out of what it can find in Wikipedia. I spent 40 years in AI research so expect to be hung from a lamp post, and quite right too!
 
Staying on topic.

The diabetes stuff. Yep. By phone. Blood tests done at the surgery.
The eye stuff…. I had a letter saying all clear at the start of 2020. That’s it.

I live in the southwest, though deal with 2 hospitals in 2 separate counties.
 
In Response said:
Will that be you or your avatar dangling from a LInux Apache, MySQL PHP stack post? :happy:
Click to expand...
But “Me” is itself just the avatar!”
jp619 said:
Hi there. I was wondering, what are your experiences with hospital checkups since the Covid Pandemic?

I live in Worcester, and the services seem to have pretty much ground to a halt. Pre-Covid, I had regular 6-monthly checkups at a hospital diabetic clinic where I could see doctors and nurses. Understandably, that stopped when we all had to stay at home. Initally I had a phone appointments, albeit few and far between. But now even those have dried up. I haven't even asked to have a HBA1C by the diabetic team for three years.

This seems pretty outrageous to me. The rest of the world seems to be operating normally. My younger son is diabetic and the childrens services have continued throughout. I've been a type-1 diabetic for over 35 years, and have always had what I believe to be good care up until Covid. I'm at the point where I could potentially start to see long-term complications... and yet no-one seems interested. It's as though I'm no longer a part of anything.

Are type-1 diabetics experiencing the same across the rest of the country, or is it just my local service?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
I am in the south-east where the surgery has 4 resident GPs, long-standing. It too has adopted the default of phone consultation and the large waiting room is almost empty all day long. I do believe that I would still be seen if I earnestly requested it. The question I have is whether the GPs will lose significant insight into patients’ conditions if they cannot directly look at them. I think initial diagnosis is going to degrade.
 
jp619 said:
Hi there. I was wondering, what are your experiences with hospital checkups since the Covid Pandemic?

I live in Worcester, and the services seem to have pretty much ground to a halt. Pre-Covid, I had regular 6-monthly checkups at a hospital diabetic clinic where I could see doctors and nurses. Understandably, that stopped when we all had to stay at home. Initally I had a phone appointments, albeit few and far between. But now even those have dried up. I haven't even asked to have a HBA1C by the diabetic team for three years.

This seems pretty outrageous to me. The rest of the world seems to be operating normally. My younger son is diabetic and the childrens services have continued throughout. I've been a type-1 diabetic for over 35 years, and have always had what I believe to be good care up until Covid. I'm at the point where I could potentially start to see long-term complications... and yet no-one seems interested. It's as though I'm no longer a part of anything.

Are type-1 diabetics experiencing the same across the rest of the country, or is it just my local service?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
You could complain via PALS on the Hospital Website - I'm not a whinger, but I have used it for both bad reasons and good. It's amazingly effective!
 
RobertJ said:
I am in Cambridgeshire and have been going to Addenbrookes since 2003. My experience has been very much the same. Hospitals have decided to nudge patients into thinking pandemic mode is the new normal and that to actually visit a hospital and see a real doctor is some kind of outdated indulgence.

I actually have a check-up on Monday but that's my first appointment since November 2021. Every appointment is telephone by default unless you ask them to change it, which I have. So it's gone from two thorough hospital appointments a year to one telephone call a year, and we're supposed to regard that as healthcare.

It would be nice if I could see the face of the doctor I am talking to, just as I did during the sixteen years from 2003 to 2019. Are we saying for those sixteen years it was reckless? Apparently that would be unsafe even though I conduct my life without a mask at all other times and I haven't been killed by that yet.

I would advise you to phone your GP surgery, ask to speak to the diabetic nurse and tell him or her what's going on. You could probably get a check-up there so at least you have it done.
Click to expand...
Interesting! I'm in Ixworth near Bury St Edmunds and have been an outpatient at Addenbrooke's ( and in- !) since 2000. Being on the transplant shielding list meant that I had no option (until a one-off appointment in August 2020 during the first Lockdown break) but to have phone appointments every 3 months right the way through until February this year. They asked me if I would prefer face-to-face. I of course said yes!
 
Stoke Mandeville and I think they've forgotten I exist. Last face to face was 2019 and I haven't even been scheduled for a call for 14 months. Persuaded GP to run some bloods so I could at least know my hba1c
 
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