Monday, August 8, 2011

Those cracks are mighty big!!!

Whenever I interact with our beloved healthcare system I worry about falling through the cracks. I work in it and I know what happens at the end of clinics - the consultant has a big pile of notes to dictate letters for and depending on the consultant/Reg they can be done instantly or sit around for a week with a label on them saying 'X's dictation pile'.


My experience in the Eye Clinic and on the Eye ward reinforced my paranoia! So I've been concerned about my referral to neuro.  I got no discharge letter, which is a handy dandy heads up! I thought I'd give them a week and then, well then I didn't really know what I'd do!


So a week rolled by and my self imposed kickass time limit ran out! By googling a bit I found two things - an Ask the doc column on the Neurology Trust website and an email address for the MS nurses at Auckland. So I flicked off an email to both, not expecting much.  Basically I asked the nurses how long should I expect to wait for a referral.


Well this morning this was in my box (Names changed to protect the great!) - it shows paranoia sometimes isn't paranoia!



Hi Nic,

I'm pleased you got in contact -X, who you emailed no longer works here but the email was fwded on to me which is great.
I've not found your discharge summary on the system but will call Dr Y or Z's team at Greenlane eye clinic and chase up your neurology referral. Ideally it would be best to pop you into an appointment asap so will try and arrange for you.
Will let you know how I get on. How is your optic neuritis now after the steroids?

Kind Regards

Super Angel





So now I feel a little less blind (apart from the neuritis, which makes me slightly vision impaired!). So now I await her reply. 

I've also sent a request to Clinical records for my notes while under the care of Eye Clinic. May or may not be interesting reading!

It just appalls me the way people can just fall through the cracks! Sometimes it works to your advantage - when I had a scratched cornea I left clinic after waiting 2 hours for my probably last follow up appointment because that is just too long and never got a new appointment - probably because I'd checked in so technically attended.

So lets see how the wheels move now.

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