Contributors

20 February - A lot of waiting around

I was in enough pain that I decided to see any GP I could get. We saw a young lady doctor who got us an appointment the next day at the West Cumberland Hospital.

The appointment was for 11am  and we weren't finished until late afternoon, but there was a lot of waiting around between tests. First I had a blood test - which had been done by the GP surgery at least twice previously - and an ultrasound scan of my abdominal area - which had also been done previously at Carlisle. Then I had a CT scan of my abdomen. All this proved was that I have a lot of gallstones - which I thought we already knew from the tests I'd had done previously. I don't like to criticize the NHS but I can't help thinking it could be organized a bit more efficiently.

Finally after all the results were in we saw a doctor, who began by admitting that he was not going to be the one treating me as he was a general doctor not a gastroenterologist. So we won't know what happens next until my results have been seen by a specialist consultant, which we don't have at our local hospital. However, I understand that there are two possible outcomes. One is that they will put a tube down my throat and try to get the gallstones out that way - which doesn't sound like a fun time to me but which is deemed preferable as it avoids surgery. The other outcome is surgery to remove the gall bladder.

In the meantime I still have a bladder full of gallstones which continue to make their presence known by giving me needles of pain from time to time.

4 comments:

  1. Good morning Julian, not a very pleasant thing to have to put up with for sure. Julia had gal stones and it was not a good time. She eventually had the gal bladder removed. I hope you hear soon from the specialist. We have the same frustrations here in Canada with the medical profession.
    Mike

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Julian. I hope that, whatever method you go for, you soon get relief from the gallstones pain. It must be awful remembering how my wife was with it.

    It does make me FUME with anger when I hear yet more stories about the NHS like this: straight forward incompetence due to poor communications between departments. There really is NO excuse for this. If I was given £1 every time I'd heard similar incidents in the last 3 years I would already be rich.

    Don't let anyone try to tell me the NHS doesn't need change. It does, BIG time. No issues with clinical care - there are good and kind people working hard - but it is let down time and again by the inefficiency of its systems that both waste our money and drive patients nuts. For God's sake get a basic IT system in place that allows people to share patient data between GPs, specialists, clinics, departments. It is not rocket science.

    BTW, I think you should soon change this blog title to "Two feet OUT of the grave" HI. Get the gallstones sorted and you'll be around for a good while yet.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Roger. I'll think about changing the title once I have my driving licence back and have climbed a summit!

    ReplyDelete
  4. There is still unfortunately a tremendous amount of bureaucracy with pages upon pages of forms that need to be filled in and filed and stored in the current department of the hospital so practically inaccessible to any other hospital or doctor in the country. A few weeks ago I had my second brain surgery and whilst in ICU my dedicated nurse spent upwards of 2 hours just filling in forms, not really looking after me. In the HDU almost the same. It is a 1050's system and it is a shambles.

    ReplyDelete