To be frightened and upset by NHS response?

[Rhioplepog]

For background I have been having random spotting throughout cycle and sometimes after sex. Went to GP who was great saw me same day, examined me and immediately sent me for colposcopy and Gynae specialist as a two week wait, she said she couldn’t see anything on my cervix but that this needed immediate attention. I was sent for blood tests also.

Im a nurse who used to work in oncology. I know 2 week waits should be taken seriously as cancer is a possibility. My GP said it’s unlikely, as I’m 35, but nevertheless possible. Possibly due to my old job I have sensitivity around this, but I keep worrying, thinking what if something is wrong and I need urgent treatment? I have 2 little kids to look after.

This was 4 weeks ago, and I have no appointment. The sent me a letter saying they would be in touch with an appointment by 3rd of December. I called the hospital and there is a recorded message saying saying they will be in touch in due course. So I stayed on and got through to another department who wouldn’t discuss with me. Friday I spent hours trying to speak to GP for help, couldn’t get through, then got cut off. Then couldn’t get through again etc.

I am starting to get more and more anxious as time passes. Tomorrow I will try again and I will also call the patient liaison people for help.

I know Covid a thing, but AIBU to feel this is really shoddy and needlessly horrible for someone?

But doesn’t a broken back mean a risk of spinal injuries if the patient is moved incorrectly? I am no medic but I am genuinely surprised about that one.

Hmm this post isn't exactly filling me with optimism....

I've just been referred to the breast clinic today under the 2ww. Fingers x'd!

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel you need an ambulance, but you won't be a top priority. You can wait before the caller with a baby going blue.

@PostMenPatWithACat I agree with you. It sounds like the call handler thought wrongly that you were a time waster.

@sasparilla1 good luck. It seems a postcode. I have a colleague who has just been down this route and everything happened within the times it was supposed to.
I have a friend just thirty miles away who has had a very different experience.
Hopefully your area will be fine and you wont have breast cancer.

@aliceca do you work for the ambulance service. What about "I have fallen badly and my wrist is deformed and I have back pain identical to when I broke my L1 five years ago and have established osteoporosis. I am on the pavement and can't get up and it is pouring with rain." Indi ated I could have been a timewaster?

What about that would indicate I am a timewaster as there could have been no record I had ever phoned for an ambulance in the last 27 years.

@PostMenPatWithACat no I dont work with them. But what the call handler said to you sounds like they wrongly thought you were a time waster. The snark about the free ambulance is the kind of thing someone might say if a caller said they had broken their wrist and nothing else.
The call handler was in the wrong.
But my point was simply that broken bones or a broken back will always be lower priority than someone struggling to breathe.

@PostMenPatWithACat that’s pretty appalling. Hope you’re doing ok now.

I appreciate the hierarchy of critical need. The problem is the first line made me identify the worst injury and refused to triage if I couldn't do that. After an hour on the pavement I said it was my wrist which by then was excruciating and my low forearm was bent out of shape. It took three calls to get them to put me in the system as someone who needed an ambulance and because they wouldn't take details about my back the clinician would only have had those details. It was horrendous.

@PostMenPatWithACat yes that is horrendous. I am saying the call handler was at fault.
If the system said your issue was a broken wrist, sadly you would wait ages. I hope you are okay now?

The physios from over the road came out after about 20 mins and lifted me into a chair but I couldn't get up with only one hand to steady myself and certainly couldn't have lowered myself into a car with only one hand available to lever myself in and out.

To be fair I don't think they should have treated even a genuine time waster that badly.

I'd have been fine waiting for two hours which I was escalated to. It was the horror of the initial advice of waiting for 4 hours in the middle of the street that was particularly horrific. They didn't care and they refused to take note of my back. Had I been at home a four hour wait would have been acceptable somewhere comfortable, dry and warm.

I know Covid a thing, but AIBU to feel this is really shoddy and needlessly horrible for someone?

You’ve been seen and assessed, nothing urgent has been seen so you’ve been put back in the system for follow up.

Surely that’s a good thing?

I’ve just been through exactly the same thing with dd. Two week referral, we had an appt within a week. Scans, tests etc done and while they can’t 100% rule anything sinister out, the chance is really tiny and all clinical signs point to something not so.

So we are now waiting on referrals to two other specialist depts. this is no longer on the 2 week pathway.

I thought our treatment was excellent, and think it’s entirely reasonable to wait for further referals.

As a nurse didn’t you ask those questions? You say they saw nothing on examination, so it sounds like they’ve ruled out anything sinister but will follow up. Before leaving the consultants office that was made very clear to is.

I was referred on 2 week wait as an abnormal cyst was found via ultrasound after pain and spotting. Still nothing and that was mid October. Gp phoned thus morning as I had a second scan, and even she was surprised.

@PostMenPatWithACat I understand. I hope you are okay now.

I go private for gynae due to bad experiences on the NHS. But isn't it time that women's medical needs were better funded, staffed and informed?

OK now. Wrist was pinned and plated. Broken vertebrae missed and minimised in A&E which took 12 hours in total and staff were horrendously rude. Broken T12 diagnosed after a private referral and MRI. It's compressed by 40% and a fragment has sheared off. It explains two more ths of agony.

Wrist and back still stiff but no undue pain now. So far have spent £400 on a specialist pilates trained physiotherapist- because my GP refused to refer for muscular pain/sprain.

If resources are an issue let's just be completely honest and introduce a Co pay social insurance system as on the Continent.

I am very very lucky because we can afford private care with no problem. Fundamentally however, I believe the NHS is funded by the people for the people and those of us with the education and who have choices should make sure the system is fit for those who don't and is delivered respectfully. That is why I have complained formally.

@PostMenPatWithACat I am glad you have complained.
I don't agree with co pay. It would personally make my life bloody horrendous. And unlike you I cant afford private treatment I have to use the NHS.

But you wouldn't have to pay under a social insurance system, you would be exempt.

Welcome to the world of people already diagnosed with cancer. DH's cancer treatment plan (designated URGENT by oncology consultant unable to make it happen) had still not begun within the NHS designated time frame. Calls and enquiries to hospital depts repeatedly fobbed off.

I made it my business to be in the same venue as the Health Minister at their advertised publicity/activity; and IN PUBLIC delivered the deficit ,verbally , backed by full documentation. I deployed my professional skills and tactics. (Dunno who was more taken aback, HM confronted by "pensioner lady" , or DH who had never seen me operating in career-mode before.) Instant result. Within 24 hours hospital management were falling over themselves to activate DH's treatment plan. Apologies, etc, crap.

It's despicable and shameful that anyone in UK needs to know how to work The System but don't hold back.This is your life. You have medical information skills from work. Put them to use.

Contact (IN WRITING) everyone you know who carries clout. Start with your employer, your union, your MP, local councillors, local Patient Liaison. Be concise, factual, polite. NAME your GP, treating hospital, Consultants, staff. Be exact about dates, investigations and results.At the end of every written letter, list the other recipients by name and title.

       Good luck.

@PostMenPatWithACat how would I be exempt? Of course, I would have to co-pay as would my family.
It would make our cost of living soar. And I would never be able to get my relative who I care for and who has szichophrenia to go to the DR. Its hard enough now, but a co-pay would finish that off.
It would make my life very hard.
Not that I expect anyone to care though.

@Nomoreusernames1244 The OP's GP assessed that she needed to be seen within two weeks. Did you read her post at all?

@CorrBlimeyGG consultants do downgrade GPs referrals. Happened to my DP. It wasn't a cancer referral, but consultant changed the priority and sent him to a nurse rather than a consultant.

Have you tried ringing to hospital department who books the appointments? They will be able to check where the referral has gone. There is usually a department like a gateway where they go through. I’ve known referrals to become lost in the system before and has happened to me due to being sent via the wrong gateway.

Better still you could ask the person at the surgery who does the referral and get them to chase it

@aliceca - apologies for not getting back to you. The social insurance schemes on the continent fully cover children, the elderly and those who are in receipt of benefits. Those who can pay, pay a very small fee at the point of delivery and the social insurance aspect of this reimburses very quickly.

In my experience healthcare delivered on the Continent is delivered to a far higher standard and is far more accessible.