Think hospital have lost biopsies- advice please

[Rutennotou]

Hi everyone

I am a 30 year old female. I've had issues with my bowels for a bit in April this year I got referred for a colonscopy as urgent (not cancer referral though) as I was so unwell at the time and was off work with a flare up of whatever is going on. Blood tests came back with C-Reactive protein high. Had my colonoscopy on June 20th which showed inflammation, I could see it myself on the screen and was told this by the doctor who did the prodecure. I had quite a few biopsies taken was told by the hospital my results would be with my GP within 4-6 weeks.

It is now November 4th and still no results. GP receptionist just tells me it's backlogs and that I will a receive a letter from the hosptial and not from them. The opposite of what the hospital tell me. I've called the hospital and they just send me back to my health centre. No one will tell me anything. I'm starting to feel the results or the samples themselves have been lost and no one will own up. I can understand things can take longer but its beyond a joke at this point. In the meantime, I still feel awful. Constantly exhausted, my hair is thinning out and now I have a small lump on a gland by my ear just to add to my concerns.

I have never had to try and chase up results before. I just want to know if anyone can offer me any advice. Can I make an appointment with my GP and get them to help me? I hate to use an appointment for that but I don't know what else to do at this point. Thanks in advance.

That’s awful! Don’t hesitate to see the GP who referred you and get this chased up.

Make a routine GP appointment and ask them to chase them up, they'll have admin team who will do this. It's not fair you have to chase them and be directed here and there. Good luck

No results should take from June to now. You are right, something has happened to them.

This is ridiculous, I used to be an endoscopy nurse. The biopsy results shouldn’t take any longer than 4 weeks. You need an appointment with a Gastroenterologist. Did you get a copy of the report when you were discharged? You could phone the endoscopy department and ask them to look up the report (it’s in an electronic system so they can do it there and then). And tell them you will put in a written complaint if you don’t get those results ASAP.

Make a nuisance of yourself so they have to take action. He who shouts loudest gets things achieved.

Try the practice manager at your gp surgery. Best of luck.

Thank you everyone for your responses.

missyB1 - I wasn't given anything before I was sent home. Just a leaflet highlighting the next course of action, which marked that my GP would receive the results in 4 - 6 weeks time. I will call the endoscopy unit in the morning and see how far I get. I tried before and was just told my GP would get the results. I'll just have to make a bit of noise which isn't really in my nature but needs must. I don't think I'd give it a second thought if they told me they found nothing at all!

Please do make a noise. And it’s poor practice for them not to give you a copy of the endoscopists report, it’s all electronic and is usually printed there and then.
They are responsible for whatever happened to your biopsies because they handled them, labelled them and sent them to the lab (we hope!)
Oh and they can look up the biopsy results by logging into the pathology system.
Don’t let them fob you off!

Contact PALS at the hospital and they'll help you complain and get the matter resolved

My husband had that same procedure and was told 4-6 weeks for results. The GP rang up with results after 3 weeks and he received a copy of the letter from the hospital a few days later.
His diagnosis was also inflammation (colitis). Your situation is shocking and your GP ought to be able to chase the results for you.

If you are feeling unwell, get someone assertive to chase this up and make a fuss on your behalf.

Hope you feel better soon.

I tried to call the endoscopy unit this morning and got a combination of line busy, no answer and then cut off. Have an appointment to see my GP on Wednesday morning, which my brother made on my behalf. I'll ring them myself later to see if they've had anything back. If not I'll try the hospital again once more later and then complain if nothing.

Agreed, this situation is shocking and its time to make some noise.

PALS should be able to help with this. I;d give them a call and tell them what you've told us.

You need to ring the PALS department of the hospital and make a formal complaint unless you have your results by the end of the week. Give them an ultimatum- usually works!

I rang my GP, they had no results. Then I called endoscopy department and got transferred to consultants secretary. She told me they have the results and they were sent ages ago to my GP. Then said she will get a surgeon to sign them off and send again. Not sure I buy it but I can't prove who's at fault. Hopefully hear something soon.

She doesn't need to get the surgeon to sign them off if they have (supposedly) already been sent once. Honestly the crap some NHS staff come out with! If those results were originally seen and signed off at the time they should have been then she could have posted them out to you today. I bet they were lost in the system!

If you get no joy from the hospital secretary then go to PALS. I'm my experience as a secretary you can just print results and fax to the patients GP but I don't know is if that hospital has other rules.

missyB1 that's my thoughts exactly, they'd have already been signed off and that's why I don't but it. To me they've just been sitting there and would have sat for God knows how long if I didn't ring looking for them. Hopefully my GP will have them by the time I go in on Wednesday morning.

I found PALs very effective in resolving a communication issue between the hospital and the community healthcare (I'd been battling for weeks and PALs had it sorted within 24 hours of me going to them). If you don't get the results tomorrow you could contact PALs.

Hello, just an update. I finally got my results when I saw my GP this morning. They weren't in when I called yesterday. I have filed a complaint at the handling of my results, imagine it had happened to someone seriously ill. Anyway, results show non specific inflammation, particularly in the lower part of the colon. More bloods taken today, need to leave in a stool sample as well. Referred to gastroenterology, will probably need another scope as I'm still having the same issues.

So glad they finally got the results over to your GP, I strongly suspect they got lost! Least they could do is own up. Hope they make your appointment with the Consultant a priority now as you’ve been messed about enough.

To be fair if something nasty had been flagged up it would probably have been acted upon sooner but it wouldn't be a bad idea at all for the department to take a look at how they process results.