Thanks for the comments everyone, working on the basis that a trouble shared is a trouble halved I feel much better already.
I had a call from the hospital this morning. They have fixed me up with a new pre-operative assessment next week, my third (fourth if you count the extra one with the anaesthetist I had to have so they could tell me I was fat) in six weeks. I’m pretty sure this is due to a need to tick a box somewhere rather than the fact I need to be seen. After all, the proof of the pudding is not in the pre-op but in the fact that I didn’t die under anaesthetic during the first operation.
Regarding my weight, I’m fairly sure that could be left to a volunteer, as I don’t think you need five years at university to spot that I’ve let myself go a bit. I may suggest this efficiency measure to them, as doctors clearly have better things to do.
They have also fixed me up with a new operation date in two weeks, though I’m not sure how much faith to put in this. Fourteen days isn’t a massive delay, I suppose, though if I give any of the staff involved in the delay the chance to wear a urinary catheter for fourteen days I don’t suppose anyone will volunteer.
I was lucky they didn’t cancel me the day before the operation. By cancelling on the day for non-clinical reasons they are committed to giving me a new date within 28 days. If they had cancelled the day before there is no such obligation. In the last quarter of 2016 there were 21,249 cancelled operations, which is 233 a day.
There are various reasons for cancellation including lack of beds, lack of staff, running out of time, equipment breakdown and administrative error. Looking at it that way, 233 isn’t a lot of cancellations, though last week the man on my ward who was cancelled twice in two days may have had a different view.
I hope the new appointment is right because it’s for 7.30, which means there is no delay and though I miss breakfast I will be on the ward for lunch.
Institutionalised? Me?
The picture has nothing to do with the text, I just wanted to add something cheery to the post. It’s from the Cloud Bar at Anderby Creek.
I’m glad you aren’t in the hospital now, with what I’ve been hearing about ransomware and the NHS. Yeesh. I hope that gets resolved and quashed soon.
Based on last time I think I might just have managed to hobble out before the computers crashed. 🙂
Well yes; the system isn’t good enough and I can’t see it ever being good enough. I take it for granted that an appointment or an operation will probably be cancelled because most people I speak to who have had hospital appointments also have had cancellations. However, it is free, as you have said, and it is doing its best.
I’ve been admitted five times for operations – three of them required me to go back after a fortnight due to initial cancellations. After the last one wasn’t cancelled I was obviously beginning to expect too much. 🙂
🙂
If we relied on insurance, the administrative costs would double and you might find it very hard to get any cover at all. Reading some of my American correspondents’ tales of the expense and hassle of being sick makes me very glad of the NHS with all its faults.
I suspect that if we went the insurance route we would see a rise in costs followed by nobody over 60 years or 12 stone being able to get cover.
I’m not in favour of insurance, but I’m not in favour of sloppy management either.
I couldn’t agree more on both fronts.
🙂
Again, what a story! Even though our health system in the U.S. is a horror, I’ve never heard of anything like this happening. I guess no place is perfect. Fingers and toes crossed for you.
About fourteen years ago I had to have two ops six months apart. Both took two attempts because the first attempts were cancelled on the day because they had no bed available.
Can’t “like” this. Wow! Truly, I’ve never heard of anything like this happening in the U.S.
The NHS is government funded – if it relied on insurance and commercial reality they would have to sharpen up. On the other hand, it is free and universally available.
And I bet nobody in England has gone bankrupt and lost their home because they couldn’t afford the price of medicine. I know someone who had to chose between paying for cancer medicine and paying for mortgage. She chose life and lost her home. Still, what you describe sounds terrible!
No, whatever happens we can be reasonably healthy and financially secure.
Still, what a time you have had! Son of a biscuit!
It’s been character-forming, that’s for sure. 🙂
Sigh.
🙂
I have not heard of the sort of thing that happened to Qercus happening here in the U.S., but plenty of other “things” happen here in the U.S. that bear scrutiny. I’ve been though our own health care system, with and without insurance, and have plenty of stories of my own. Neither situation is necessarily pretty. And to get a Congressional Representative, Senator or even one of their aides to actually talk about the issues with me so I can give them data, is well, on the order of trying to book a flight to Mars.
I, too, am keeping finger and toes crossed for Quercus. I have “Liked” in solidarity with that poor soul and his wife, Julia. No health care system is in the world is bullet proof, and I am grateful to all the fine doctors and nurses I have had the pleasure of knowing over the years. They work hard, have to see too many patients/too many surgeries in a day, have little time to rest, let alone stay current in their field. But often it seems, as my father was fond of saying, the best one can hope for is that the staff have taken the Hippocratic Oath, and not the Hypocritical Oath.
I apologize for the rant. 🙂
No problem, healthcare is important. 🙂
We have several family members in the NHS and they all work hard and do their best.
Things are much better than they used to be, and it’s almost a given that demand will outstrip supply.
We have an imperfect system, but it’s better than many of the alternatives.
🙂
Yes, definitely a system with many plus points.
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No need to apologize. I’m with you all the way!!!!!
🙂
I’m saying nothing
Even your silence speaks volumes. 🙂