Hello all, just an update on what has been happening.
I?m enormously not impressed.
This is very long, but I?m really keen that no-one later tries to claim that the trust actually did help me, so I?m posting the details that prove otherwise.
As you will know from my original post I didn?t think there was much point in contacting the trust to complain since I had previously sent them a formal written complaint that they promised they would take very seriously, and then ignored.
However, after my post there was a lot of talk about how I ought to give it another go along with that flannel from the chief exec about how ?patient experiences are very important in terms of lessons learned and demonstrating the need to improve quickly?.
So I did contact them. I asked if I could have a copy of my notes and an appointment with the consultant.
This didn?t seem excessive to me since the consultant had said he wanted to see us in three months to discuss the results of our tests & he arranged an appointment for us.
This meeting was then postponed from May to the end of August and then cancelled altogether, so it was not as if I was trying to jump the queue or ask for special treatment or anything. It was really just asking them to do what they ought to be doing anyway.
Anyway they said I could have my notes for £35 which I?m obviously not prepared to pay as it is clearly not good to start incentivising this level of dysfunction.
They then asked me if I?d go to a meeting with them, which worried me, frankly, as I didn?t want to a meeting just so they could then say they?d had one and yet not listen to a word I said, but we thought we?d better give them the benefit of the doubt and said we?d go.
I didn?t hear anything so after 5 days I chased the email and was told the person had received it, just hadn?t got round to replying yet.
DH and I had said we could do Mon-Thurs the next week and I also said I couldn?t take calls at work on my mobile, I asked them to call DH instead- I gave them his name and number.
They didn?t contact us once Mon- Thurs, but on Friday afternoon they rang us 11 times in total on my landline and my mobile. They didn?t ring once on the number I had asked them to. Not quite sure what the thinking there was.
The reason I?d said Mon- Thurs was because the Friday was the due date of our baby and we didn?t want to be bothered. (To be fair the trust probably didn?t know it was the due date). But not great for us that they rang me 5 times on my mobile during the two hour period we were in a counselling session.
At any event the person then sent me an email with a suggested date, stating that she was going away but had copied in two other people who could deal with it in her absence.
I sent an email back, carefully copying in the other two people so that I?d be sure someone read it, stating that I would only be willing to attend the meeting if they had bothered to find me a new date for a meeting with the consultant.
I also reiterated that they were not to call me at work on my mobile but to call DH instead.
We then heard nothing until Friday when they rang me (again on my mobile at work when I?d now asked them twice not to). I was in a meeting and the person who left the message did not leave their name, just the name of the department and the number.
So I rang back at lunchtime and explained I needed to speak to whoever there had rung me. The person who answered the phone then said, (and I?m not making this up), ?I haven?t rung you and no-one else here has been using the phones this morning, so you must have the wrong department? so I said, ?but they left this number? and she said ?perhaps someone from another department rang you and left this number? (because that?s likely 
) so I said they mentioned the name of their department on the message and asked if they could please check, at which point there was a silence and then someone else came on the line who had called me that morning (possibly she hid under her desk to do it, so the other person didn?t see).
I pointed out that I had asked twice previously not to be called at work and she said no-one had told her. She then asked if I was coming to the meeting and I?d said I?d sent an email about it. To which she said, well I don?t think anyone can have read that since they just asked me to ring you.
She did, however, promise that she would get someone to ring me on Monday without fail.
No-one rang on Monday, obviously. Or Tuesday for that matter.
But on Wednesday I got a text from the hospital stating that I had a new appointment the following week and on Thursday there was a letter in the post stating the same thing.
So you?d think that was fair enough- I?d said I?d only go to the meeting the following Monday if I?d got a date for an appointment with my consultant, and now here I am with an appointment. Lucky me!
But I thought it was odd that they sent me a standard appointment letter but didn?t bother to call us or send us an email saying ?yep, we?ve done that appointment for you to see the consultant as you asked so please will you come to the meeting?. This made me suspicious because it was rather familiar to me?..
When they moved my meeting from May/August and I complained, I was told by the consultant?s sec she would try to get me an earlier one and ring me the next day. She didn?t ring me and when I rang her the following day it was as if we had never spoken and she said I should wait for a letter. When I got the letter I could see why she?d avoided calling me since the letter gave me an appointment with a more junior doctor, and not the consultant who?d asked to see us. The letter also cancelled the later date appointment with the consultant. They hadn?t asked me if it was OK to do this, just presented it as a fait accompli.
I was a bit worried about another fait accompli this time as, although beyond the bounds of normal behaviour, it wouldn?t actually surprise me If I went to the meeting with the trust on Monday on the understanding that I?d got a later consultant appointment only to find out afterwards that it wasn?t really an appointment with the consultant, but by which time they wouldn?t care as they?d have had their meeting.
So I sent them a quick email this morning saying just checking this appointment you?ve made for me actually is with the consultant and not really with someone else.
They then rang my husband, and guess what- yep it wasn?t really with the consultant after all. It was really with a more junior doctor who we?d never met before.
The woman then had the enormous nerve to be quite superior with DH on the phone, trying to argue that it didn?t matter that it was a different person!
Not, oh sorry about all the phone calls on the number you asked me not to call you on, sorry no-one read your email, sorry we?ve tried to pull a fast one and been really dishonest with you YET AGAIN. She ended the conversation by saying she would ?diarise a later appointment for a meeting with the trust? after we?d been able to see the consultant?!!!
A few hours later we received an email from someone else there with a new appointment time for a meeting at the trust, along with directions, as if we?d actually asked for/ agreed to this!
Unless they?ve got a team of wild horses to drag us there we obviously won?t be going.
Despite this being a very long post, at this point, words fail me.