Doctor didn't do my referal

[London91]

Went to my doctor a week ago. Long story short I cancelled an operation because I was pregnant. Unfortunately I miscarriaged so I now need the operation again. Meant to be having a laparoscopy, dye Test, cystectomy, endometrial biopsy. My doctor said it would be a case of just re-refering me, no need to see the consultant again. A week later, still no letter from the hospital. The gynae admissions team at my local hospital are pretty quick, so I rang them today and they had no referal. I rang my gp and they said they'd ring back after speaking to the doctor. They called me back to say the doctor had sent the referal. I asked if it had been sent, they said no he sent it today. Aibu to be totally fuming and think I should take it further as this has now delayed my treatment. Just feeling really emotional and feel like nothing is happening.

A week is not long to process referral letters.

A week might not be unusual. It needs to be dictated, typed up by a secretary, checked and signed before sending. It might have been in a queue to get done and they've looked it out and sent it today.

A week to send a referral sounds about right tbh.

Sounds right timewise to me.

I'm sorry for your miscarriage and your other fertility (I assume) issues, and I can understand your frustration at being delayed, but it looks like the referral has only been delayed by a week.

He clearly made a mistake, but it's only a week.

The receptionist I spoke to didn't want to admit it hadn't been sent off, I had to ask. If that was the case surely she would have explained and that wouldn't have been a problem. She didn't want to admit that an error had been made.

It's a pretty minor error though isn't it? It's only one week.

From your first post she wanted to check with the Gp before saying anything which makes perfect sense!

I’m sorry you are feeling emotional.

However, routinely doctor referrals can take several days to write, apart from for urgent ‘Two Week’ referrals.

So yes YABU

She said she couldn't see anything at first so wanted to check with the doctor, she mentioned an earlier referal I'd had. Then obviously found his mistake and asked him to send it off before calling me back. Maybe I'm being overly impatient. I'm just so frustrated and I just feel like I've been waiting so long to become a parent. Any more time I'm waiting or waiting for another appointment feels like a lifetime.

What do you want to happen?

You've been told that a week is not excessive for a referral to be sent.

It doesn’t sound like an error had been made, more like she wanted to be certain before she said anything.

Sorry for your loss.

Unless it's a suspected cancer referral, a week isn't unusual. Sounds like they handled it badly, but nothing done hugely wrong.

Your assuming there was a mistake.
Sounds like he just hadn’t got around to it yet as he has hundreds of other patients to deal with too

You keep talking about a mistake but there's no evidence one has been made.

Take it further ? Take what further ? A minor omission was made. They didn't cut the wrong leg off or summat.

You were on the ball, they sorted it immediately. End of story.

Okay maybe I'm being a little sensitive. Just feeling really down and frustrated about things.

A week doesn't seem long, GP might be part time, or the admin team to type it up etc. I had a referral go missing, took me 6 weeks to chase it as I was told it would be around 6-8 weeks, I phoned to check I was in the system but I wasn't. Just got it sent again, no reason to go on a witch hunt.

Next time round I checked a bit quicker I was in the system, had my appointment sorted then got a snotty letter from GP saying I hadn't responded to my letter - the department had cancelled my appointment! Mistakes happen, not life threatening so a hassle but not major.

It sounds like it had been forgotten about which is very annoying but on the positive side it has only been delayed a week. This happened to me once and I phoned up a month after the appointment to find it had been completely forgotten about and they still needed to do it. I lost a whole month! Then there was about 3 months after that to get an appointment!

I work in a surgery so obviously the doctors do lots of referrals so usually they will make notes then do a few at a time when they have time it probably wouldn't have been straight after your appointment as they have other appointments , home visits and all other admin, letters , test results to do aswell. Then it's gets taken to the Secretary we only have one a day for all the doctors it's not like at hospital were they each have their own. So then the Secretary has to work through all the referrals and type them up then get a signature if it's a paper referral, which it may not be it may be electronic. So I honestly can't see how a mistake has been made. Why do you think it has been ? The doctors have lots of other patients and unfortunately the referral can't be done the second you leave the appointment.

OP

A day can feel like a month sometimes, can't it?

Sorry you have been through a difficult time. At least you are aware it has been sent now and hopefully things will progress quickly.

A week for a referral is quick alot of people have to wait a lot longer before they get anywhere so I would count yourself lucky they have done it in the time they have. Plus with it being the Xmas period they are under alot of pressure so some thing may seem to slip by..

@Sleepyhead1 Rather than tell me that it was in the queue or a batch waiting to be sent off. She told me the doctor sent it off and didn't specify when. I had to ask when it had been sent off. Least its sorted now.