MRI scan - no contact or communication from hospital since November. Is this ok?

[tailorjay]

Hi, just some feedback if anyone has had similar experience. My DS10 had an MRI scan in November as a recommendation following a diagnosis of another condition. Am a bit worried to say what conduction in case of outing. I haven't had any calls regarding the results. I have left a voice message and emailed in December but nothing. The GP says they don't have access to this and only the hospital can tell me that information. I assume no news is good news though am I right in feeling this isn't ok? I think any child who has an MRI scan, the parents should have a right to know the outcome whether it's all fine. Even a quick phone call.

Typo 'condition' not 'conduction'!

So I'd guess the possibilities are:

1. The wait for children's brain imaging reports is really, really long in your area. This wouldn't be completely surprising as there are only a handful of people qualified to do this work.

1. The report is finished, taking action on it is in a consultant's workload queue that is a mile long, especially if they had a rush of other activity or annual leave. They may have glanced at it and said "oh good normal, I'll park it now and do all my routine updates letters later".

2b. As above but they have actually forgotten to come back and do it.

1. In their mind they told you "don't worry, I'll only contact you if there's something to worry about on the scan" and think that's the end of it (this is less common in paediatrics but people do say this sometimes for some tests)

3b. They are seeing you again and plan to briefly update about the scan at that point.

1. Something has gone wrong with some admin and the result hasn't tracked back to the requesting consultant.

Either way, 2-3 months is long to wait and it's entirely reasonable for you to want to know the result. Usual route would be to contact the consultant's secretary (via hospital switchboard if you know it), if you don't know what specific consultant try and get through to any paediatric secretary (assuming it was paediatrics and not another specialty like orthopaedics, ENT) and they usually talk to each other. If phone not working you could even write a letter. Either way make sure you supply up to date address and telephone number as systems often out of date and his contributes to communication problems.

Not a child, but I had a MRI scan in July to see if a tumour was cancer - still waiting to hear from the hospital! No communication never mind appointment at all! They have texted me twice however, to say waiting lists are long and would I like to give up my appointment and go back to the GP?

I asked my GP about the results in November - she printed the report off for me, there and then! The report said the tumour was benign!

Try the GP - they can write to the hospital on your behalf, to try to hurry them up?

Have you looked on the NHS app or Patient Access app to see if the MRI report is on them?

Thank you so much! That was a great sense check which I needed. It is the secretary I have been trying to contact but no answers to my calls/email. I will see if there is another contact available and take it from there.

Ring the consultants secretary. They may only work a few days a week or for a couple of consultants. Failing that try Pals.

My ds had an MRI on his leg last year and we were told to make the appointment for the results at the same time. As christmas was in the way, the results would have been 4 weeks later. But I got a phone call 2 days after the MRI telling us to come into hospital 2 days later and it turned out to be an undiagnosed fracture. So they obviously sped things as something was found.

Did they give you any idea of when you should expect to hear back? MRI reports can take a very long time due to staff shortages, and I'd guess that's even worse for paediatrics.

Go the complaints route. I did and got a very quick response. The hospital website will have an email address for this.

My son had an emergency mri last year and we only waited 2 days for the results.
Something was found with my sons mri so if it's urgent they would have been in touch by now I'd imagine.
Waiting is so horrible.

If you have the initial email you sent then send that, along with any other times you have tried to contact the department, in an email to PALs. This is what PALs is there for and they will sort it out quickly.

I'm a medical secretary and there are a number of reasons why you might not have heard yet, but the wait is unacceptable in my opinion, you should have at least had a call/email back from the secretary acknowledging your message, provided you have the right contact details.

No one will get in 'trouble' if you contact PALs (unless they have made numerous deliberate mistakes causing delays, in which case it's warranted) but it could highlight system failings and other processes that need changing.

Thank you all very much for all your feedback. All very valuable especially as I always ask myself 'am I being unreasonable' to expect this or that, so this confirmed my instinct that it isn't acceptable- especially when it's a child.