to want dh to change consultant... long, sorry

[harassedinherpants]

as the one he saw yesterday made a school girl error that nearly killed my mum last year and has left her with problems??

Bit of background. Mum saw this eye consultant about a year ago and needed cataracts removed. Fine, all done ok. But she was then left with the most horrendous and debilitating headaches. She literally couldn't do anything, I've never seen her like that. She also couldn't see properly. Consultant saw her again and said she just needed to let her eyes heal for longer and gave her mega pain killers. This went on for weeks and weeks. Mum eventually went to the optician who said mum needed to be seen asap, she was going to talk to mums gp, and she would be seen immediately. The optician went to see the doc, and mum was seen first thing the following morning and referred immediately to hospital.

It turns out that the optician had seen a huge mass behind mums eye. It could have been a tumour or an anuerysm. It was aneurysm and could have gone at any minute. She was transferred by ambulance to another hospital and underwent two major operations. They didn't know if she'd survive, or could have had a stroke, but thankfully she came through really well.

She's now home but her optical nerve has been damaged and her left eye doesn't move so she sees double which causes her all kinds of problems. She can't drive, can't go out on her own and can't do so many things.

So....now dh is having double vision and we were at his consultants appointment yesterday, he didn't see the consultant named on the letter which I know is perfectly normal as he is under another consultant presently, but he saw the consultant that missed mums anuerysm. I don't have any faith in her...

Can he change?? AIBU??

Sorry it's so long, but there's a lot of background info!

YANBU. I would change consultants under those circumstances.

IIRC, under the NHS Patients' Charter you have the right "to be seen by a consultant acceptable to you". The flip side of which, to me, is that you can refuse to be seen by a consultant who you don't find acceptable. I can quite understand why you're not happy for your DH to be under the care of the consultant that missed your mum's aneurysm - how does your DH feel about her?

How well do you get on with your GP? As long as they're sympathetic they're probably the best place to start. If it were me, I'd be getting DH to be talking to the GP re. pushing for a flag to be put on DH's hospital notes that he does not wish to be seen by this consultant under any circumstances. Your GP should be able to advise whether you need to do this through him or by contacting PALS at your hospital (or if your GP says you can't do that, you might want to check with PALS whether that's correct or not).

Has anyone complained about the "care" your mother received from this consultant? I'm sorry she (and you all) have had such a rough ride and hope you can get something sorted so that you don't have this extra stress while trying to resolve your DH's issues.

Thank you both for your replies.

Tangle thanks for that info. Dh is under a different gp to me, but we'll def looking into it.

A complaint as such wasn't made by my mother as she was so ill for so long that it just seemed unimportant for a time. However, the consultants on the neuro ward were well aware that a mistake had been made and it was implied that it had been dealt with although we don't know how.