Need to go to hospital, can't get there. Fed up with no help

[Notwavingbutdrowningalone]

I had ankle and foot fusions and a leg broken and pinned a week ago today.

I'm in a backslab plaster (plaster round back of leg, bandage over wounds to allow for swelling. Supposed to changed to a full plaster next Friday.

However, I've been given an appointment for Tuesday as he wants to see me sooner and it's "very important" I attend.

The appointment is also in a town 18 miles away, instead of my home one.

I can't attend. DH is working that day, having used leave for the op. Only dsis drives, but she doesn't want to do it

Clearly I can't get a bus and a taxi is too expensive, besides I am very, very wobbly on crutches and would need to transfer to a wheelchair.
I've spoken to the doctor's secretary who told me to phone the clinic, which I did in tears. The soonest appointment is December, far too late for bandage and stitches to be left.

I wanted to cancel the surgery, I knew it would be hard, yet family and friends convinced me, saying they would help...lying fuckers.

I'm just so down, alone and helpless.

@Notwavingbutdrowningalone luckily she is always ok as one if us manages to take holiday but some of us live a few hrs away so its a difficult to take days holiday for a 30 mins appt but needs must etc
Glad you have transport now

Phone back and ask for hospital transport!

Read the thread

I am pleased to see your update as I was going to ask if the hospital had a transport system in place for patients such as yourself. Some are run by volunteers.

@Ohcrapp thats so kind!

Only dsis drives, but she doesn't want to do it

That would be her off my Christmas card list. Glad you got something sorted.

When I broke my leg I found out who my real friends were. You have my sympathies!

I would reach out on Facebook - local pages. Ask for help. You'll be surprised how many lovely people there are out there willing to help (unlike your sister apparently!)

Round here there’s a volunteer hospital transport service, so someone picks people up for their appointments, gets them to the hospital and gets them home. Can you see if there is something similar near you?

Exactly could’ve should’ve would’ve.

maybe the reason the sister refused is because she wondered why her husband wasn’t asked. I don’t know.

I have women in the extended family who refuse to trouble the menfolk but like to call on the women who obviously don’t have anything else to do (they do but they’re women so can’t be that important)

anyway probably not the case here and glad you have transport sorted.

Husband needs to take the time off. It's an emergency. If I was him I would simply inform work I wouldn't in.

Ah seen update glad it's sorted

If my neighbor was in your situation, without hesitation I would take them where they needed to go. Do you have neighbors?

I remember when I was pregnant, the hospital I was to give birth at was 80 miles away, lots of farm neighbors told me they would take me to the hospital if my husband wasn't available for some reason. One guy joked I'd have to ride in the back of his pick-up as he didn't want me making a mess of his seats.

Don't get an ankle fusion, get an ankle replacement as I did, they work great.

Hospital transport, usually means getting picked up early and getting back late
I agree but at least it gets her there. My friend has had to use them many times for a trip 52 miles away. Sometimes she can get a lift one way other times she prepares herself for the day( flasks if hot choclate or coffee sandwiches and snacks, kindle and charger etc)
Even if you could get two people to help out so they are only doing one journey each and not hanging round the hospital would help, that could ease the burden rather than one friend thinking they've hot to do two separate trips and being tied for the day or thinking they have to wait.

Who can afford to take unpaid days of work in this current climate?? A lot of People are actually having to choose between heating or eating this winter.

Hospital transport or local voluntary transport.

Speak to your GP or 111 about it and see what they suggest.

This is where the NHS has completely failed in my opinion...

It has provided far too much, for far too many, for far too long, and in doing so has eroded both societal and personal responsibility.

I'm not saying the OP fits either category - but in any other country, this is not a problem - either the patient perseveres and finds a way to get themselves to hospital, or a friend, relative or neighbour would help.

In a lot of countries friends or family are expected to provide or launder bedding, provide food, help with feeding or personal care etc etc.

In the UK the NHS has allowed or even actively encouraged a state of societal helplessness where every problem is one for 'the system' to fix, whereas if it had a clearer more focussed mandate from the outset, I think society would be overall more caring and problems like the OP has wouldn't exist.

@FixTheBone Countries where this is common do not tend to have women working until 67 years of age.

In a lot of countries friends or family are expected to provide or launder bedding, provide food, help with feeding or personal care etc etc.

Yes. They're countries where attitudes to women are somewhat different from here. If you'd like to live in countries where women's role is entirely to serve their families and to have no other life, go for it.

I would take on care of relatives in hospitals if the state would fund me being stay at home as a woman. Or if employers had to give paid time off for people to do this. The way Britain is set up it is impossible to do.

I guess it just depends on the area. We live rurally and there isn’t a surgical hospital closer than an hour’s drive.

Years ago hospital transport was brilliant, and available to pretty much anyone. It was operated by a network of volunteers with “nice” cars, and you could pretty much phone on a Monday for a Wednesday appointment. It wasn’t free as such, but if you were on a low income or a pensioner you didn’t have to pay, and if you did pay it was much cheaper than a taxi would have been.

That was scrapped and replaced with free transport that you practically have to beg to be allowed to book. I’m physically disabled and unable to drive, but they will try anything to deny me transport. Why can’t my husband take me, why can’t I ask a friend, why can’t I go on the bus (no bus from my area goes anywhere near a hospital, and if it’s a morning appointment the buses don’t start early enough for me to be able to get the two or three I’d need). It also needs to be booked weeks in advance. Not ideal if you’ve got a last minute appointment.

Conversely, where my parents live you phone for the community transport bus and it picks you up and delivers you to the hospital for £2.

I do understand @FlatWhiteExtraHot my situation is similar but I just find it staggering that a few days post surgery when the op has been requested to attend by her surgeon that there wouldn't be transport available.

I get asked can I not travel alternatively for normal appointments (of which I have a lot) - but I would have expected an appointment a very few days post surgery to be a priority for hospital transport.