consultant not responding

[tali122]

an orthpeadic consutant who is supposed to be seeing my son is not respsonding to my calls -this has been over 4 months the consultant needed 2nd opinions of 2 other consultants who agreed that my son should have the treatment asap, when i mentioned that there was no information /progress been made one of the other consultants even wrote a letter on my behalf to the orthpaedic consultant telling him to contact me directly by phone - but nothing -so what should i do now?

[trevoraston]

Hi there. If the consultant is based in a hospital call and demand to speak to the head of the department. Do not be shy about it. When you speak to the head of the department explain what has happened and they should assist you. Failing that you can contact the NHS directly by typing in "NHS Complaints" in a search engine such as Google. This will bring you http://www.nhs.uk/england/aboutTheNHS/complain Compliment.cmsx from here you can follow the online steps to contact your local NHS where the problem consultant is located. ( and remember do not be afraid to complain)

i hope this is off help to you.

trevor

[Toureman]

Do as Trever says!

I did and it was amazing how quickly it was sorted.

[Toureman]

Sorry Trevor, I spelt your name wrong.

[medsecslave]

Ring his secretary and get her to book a follow up appointment for your son in clinic to be seen by the Consultant personally. If that can't be arranged for whatever reason, write to the Consultant. Dont bother ringing again. If he's not that way inclined to ring patients back (and most of them aren't) you are wasting your time. Have you thought about requesting a second opinion? Your son's condition is obviously giving the Consultant concern that he has discussed it with his colleagues - perhaps he's not keen to undertake surgery himself and may welcome your suggestion of a referral elsewhere? All that said, you need to know what's happening.

If all else fails, you should write to the Chief Executive of the hospital trust who will take up your complaint with the Consultant and he will have to respond. Hope it all works out for you and your son.

[medsecslave]

Another thing - when you do get a clinic appointment, it's worth ringing up a couple of days before to check that he will actually be there in person as their timetables can change at short notice.