Hospital Treatment Waiting Time

[iloveglee]

I wonder if anyone can explain to me how the 18 weeks referral to treatment works in the NHS. a relative of mine attended the hospital in early august, for an ECG, at the behest of his GP, due to a suspected irregular heartbeat. whilst waiting for the GP to receive the result and do something about it, my relative's symptoms worsened and he attended A&E, in the middle of august and had a 2 day stay on a medical assessment unit. he was discharged with a letter to say he was to have an echo cardiogram and cardiology follow up within 4 weeks. as we were going on holiday he managed to organise the echo via a cancellation. on our return home from holiday, no follow up appointment had been received so he contacted the hospital the cardology department didn't have him anywhere in their system. he was unhappy with his symptoms and contacted the GP who said he wanted him seen within a week. after many phone calls an appointment was arranged with a different consultant who was appalling in every way. he told him he was putting him on the urgent waiting list for a pacemaker. we are now almost in December and as a result of yet another phone call to the secretary, was told he was 'pencilled in' for the pacemaker 16th December. 2 days later he receives a letter for an outpatient appointment with the consultant he should have seen in the first place, who will not do the surgery without seeing him first. he refuses outright to see the appalling consultant, he has in fact made a formal complaint about him. So - given that he was never referred officially by the GP, and the referral from the assessment unit was never made - lost in the system somewhere - when did his 'clock' start ticking. its beginning now to look like into the new year before anything is done, his symptoms which were variable are now constant, and are getting worse. They are at a complete loss as to what to think now, the whole thing has been a complete shambles from the start.

[woofgang]

You need to get in touch with the hospital patient advice and liaison service, either go to the hospital's website and look for it or phone the hospital enquiries and ask them.

[237SJ]

You might get some advice from PALS at the hospital.

[iloveglee]

Actually they did make an official complaint against the appalling consultant but this is the whole system.

[woofgang]

That's why you need PALS, you tell them the whole story and the sort out where the system went wrong and address those responsible.

[iloveglee]

I think also that probably pals is the place to go. this is who they contacted when they made the complaint about the consultant, part of which was the complete mess they made of things initially. they plan to go and see this other consultant in 2 weeks, and see what comes of that. if this person can give them some satisfactory answers, and come up with some suitable, and timely treatment - whatever that may be - they may drop it. if not ............