I despair [banging head on wall emoticon]

[emkana]

We saw the lung specialist with ds on the 29th of Nov. He suggested several tests for ds to get to the root of his chest problems.

Since then I've been waiting patiently for appointments.

Today I spoke to the GP who said I should phone to find out what's happening.

Turns out the lung specialist has either not written the letter or it has got lost in the system.

I just want to kick chairs and scream at somebody...

Am now waiting to hear from lung specialist to see where we go from here.

oh em

the waiting and waiting and waiting must be awful for you

when childrne are involved this shouldnt be the case

Oh this isn't your crappy specialist is it?

I wish I could say you experience was unusual. (develop rhino hide and chase every bloody test they do- you shouldn't have to do it, but unfortunately you will).

I used to be a medical secretary. Let me give you a little tip.

In future 3 days after an appointment - ring the secretary and make sure the relevant letters/phonecalls have been made.

Make sure you are very very pleasant and friendly to the secretary and get on first name terms with her. Make sure you always speak to the same person.

Then very kindly, and gently hassle her like crazy.

She won't be able to be rude to you cos you are such a nice person, but on the other hand she will do everything in her power to make sure whatever needs doing is done as quickly as possible to get you off her case!

If you call the specialist's secretary, tell her when your son saw him in clinic. She should have the clinic letter stored on her computer (if she's any good that is!!) and ask her to fax the letters for his tests to the relevant people.

The consultant's secretary is lovely and always very helpful on the phone.

I just don't know in this case whether the fault lies with the lung specialist (didn't he write a letter?) or with the consultant at the local hospital - did she lose the letter? Or did it get lost somewhere inbetween?

Am supposed to get a call back from the lung specialist, but fully expect to have to chase that up in a day or two...

sigh

I just want to cry sometimes

and the GP is no help whatsoever

I still miss the antenatal consultant - he phoned me at home once for no other reason than to express his sympathy.

He also visited me on the postnatal ward to congratulate me on ds's birth.

He was so lovely... [swoon]

can't resist giving this a quick bump in view of the thread about the NHS programme...