How do you go about changing trusts for a different doctors opinion?

[PonderLand]

My son had surgery at the beginning of the month, it was/is a failed surgery and we are still facing issues with the wound and trying to obtain the medication he needs (he should of been on it straight after surgery but the GP can't prescribe it without authorisation from the hospital doctors and hospital doctors aren't getting back to me)

there has been a lot of failings and I'm so worn down by it all, every single step has been a battle of resilience. The team we are under are obviously extremely busy and don't seem to have time for my son/their patient. This is not their fault, I know they're not sat around drinking cups of tea etc but it has had a detrimental effect on my sons body and I'm so angry at the whole thing.

He will have to have further surgery to correct the issues and I want to switch trusts to get a second opinion, is it even possible/allowed? Who should I speak to? We are due a review with the hospital in one month which the GP has told me to take my son to but I have so little faith in them right now.

It would be simpler to ask for a switch of consultant within your own trust if you'd like a second opinion. Other than referrals to specialist centres outwith a trust, generally patients are treated within their own trust. Patients sometimes request a move to a different trusts hospital to be closer to family etc but it isn't always possible. Depends on whether he receiving will see grounds to accept you and if your trust in turn are prepared to fund it.

Has the surgery failed because they did something wrong or has it failed due to a possible complication? If your son needs a particular medication and the GP needs go ahead from the consultant then they should be chasing it. Have you contacted your consultants secretary to enquire about it?

Hi @Oops4 thank you for responding. Yes the surgery failed due to a rare complication, which I didn't want to happen obviously - but we were prepared for. We have not been told why it's happened, but are going for a review in a month once the wound has settled down. My main issue is the lack of contact/after care which has impacted on it and made it worse than it needed to be for all of us. We saw 4 (on call) surgeons and neither identified the complication or agreed on it been infected despite the gp sending us to hospital saying it was.

We've had infection samples/swabs lost, we've been told to attend a&e and wait for them and waited 8 hours, we've also waited 5 hours and got turned away as the doctor was busy (they told us to go each time, we didn't just turn up). We never got prescribed the correct medication to prevent infection and are now waiting for this medication to be confirmed to stop any further infection. It's been 3 days and it's smelling infected again as of tonight, the gp won't do anything and neither will the dept at the hospital. The surgery my son had (hypospadias repair) requires a urologist who specialises in the repair, this specialist is now on holiday for two weeks so we are waiting for the oncall urologists again to contact us in regard to the prescription confirmation.

When I rang the surgeon to arrange another assessment as he'd left us waiting for 5 hours and never came at the last one I told him how upset I was at the care, and that I was worried about my sons healing. He never apologised and told me he'd been working very late every night and will be working late all week too. It felt very unprofessional and I've lost trust in him and his team and do not want them to be involved in any further treatment. They don't have the time for him and he admitted that to me.

And yes I have to go through the surgeons secretary to contact them and she emails them.

I'm sorry if I sound blunt, just typing it out frustrates me, he's so young and I really didn't think we'd be left trying to figure it all out on our own. I have googled everything available and I am having to rely on myself to get the information I should of been given (for instance the post op medication required). I feel like they will only tell me things if I ask the right questions but I do not know the right questions to ask as there is hardly any information online to guide me.

This sounds awful, OP, and completely unacceptable. Your poor DS. Regardless of how busy they are, they need a rocket up their backsides. The lack of meds is seriously neglectful. Have you got on to PALS?

Hi @ShovingLeopard I haven't formally complained yet, I'm not sure if I should whilst my son is still under their 'care'.

After I spoke to the surgeon when I had my concerns he wasn't apologetic, he did show up on time the following day to assess my son with another surgeon. It was a very weird atmosphere though, they were mumbling to each other and didn't explain it to me then they just left and I didn't know if we should go home or not! It was odd and I do think our phonecall the previous day was likely the reason for the weirdness, I didn't say anything awful or raise my voice.

Since then I've been googling and found my own information out and that is how I found out my son should have been on more medication.

I understand about not wishing to rock the boat while you are reliant on their 'care'.

I made a complaint to PALS recently about an incident concerning my toddler. It was dealt with very well, concerns were taken seriously, a senior person followed it up with the staff concerned and kept me fully informed. It hasn't adversely impacted our treatment, in fact quite the opposite, next time we visited we got five star treatment. They were probably worried I'd do it again. I did rather tell them their fortune, with a bit of a laundry list of where they were gojng wrong, and some complimentary management advice on how to fix it. Unfortunately it was the last straw in a line of shoddiness, which meant i was too hopping mad to let it go that time.

However, she is not an inpatient, and her issues, while chronic, are not currently that serious. I also wasn't complaining about a surgeon. This all happened at a major London teaching hospital. Long shot, but if it's a London hospital PM me, and we can see if it's the same one.

That's interesting that they kept you informed, I complained to pals about a year ago when they mixed up my sons blood sample with another child's of the same name whilst on an assessment ward. I never heard anything back about it, all I wanted was for them to speak to the junior doctor who did it and make sure they don't do it again. It could of been disastrous for either child if the wrong treatment was given/not given.

We are going back in one month to find out if he's going to need further surgery to repair the damage, I imagine so as it has completely broken down. I will ask them to refer us to another specialist for the repair. I will make a formal complaint once I have the energy to go through it all.

I would phone PALs and explain the rough scenario and why you need meds prescribed, and explain that you’d like the opportunity to complain properly in the future but are at present more concerned with stopping the infection before the hospital fully investigates the ongoing problems faced and looks at their failings / their lessons learnt.

The gp secretary has taken over trying to contact the urologist for the medication notice, they haven't responded to them either so at least it isn't just me that gets ignored. My mum is a nurse and she thinks she knows what it's called they'll want my ds to have so I bought some OTC tonight and lied to the pharmacist that it was for me! After reading up on it online it's probably useless at this point, three weeks too late.

When I get a minute I'll write everything down that's happened so far so I don't forget anything. Thank you @ShovingLeopard & @BloodyWorried for your advice and sharing your experiences I'm so sorry you're toddler has been at the receiving end of bad practice/care.

It smells infected again