Now my favourite Dragon 'hoody' has a chewed cuff. Sulk.
~~~~
The Curious Case.......
Of another me. As if one wasn't enough :)
It has to be remembered that I never, ever go anywhere unaccompanied. Never. So it isn't me being absent-minded.
I'd turn up for diabetic podiatry appointments at town centre clinic, to find I'd already been, or phoned up to cancel. They took some convincing I hadn't. So they'd make me another appointment, only for it to happen again. And Again. Always the phone cancellations.
We all got fed up in the end. They stopped asking me to go. After a few months, they moved podiatry services to our local surgery, and I was invited to attend. So we turned up, making darn sure I had the letter. Guess what? Yup.
That left them scratching their heads. More, they confirmed my name, and Bears, and thatshe'd been with me. Grudgingly they admitted that 'perhaps' there'd been a mix up.
A few weeks on, yet another letter. This time, we phoned up to confirm first. Only to discover that the visiting podiatrist had "refused to attend for THAT patient". So that was the end of that.
In the end we compromised. The diabetic nurse, who knows me well, volunteered to do the work at my six monthly appointment. Time rolled on for our yearly influenza injection. We arrived only to find we'd both just had it. We rolled up our sleeves to show the GP. More head scratching.
Later, I had a practice nurse appointment. Browsing the computer screen, I noticed the phrase 'substance abuse'. Pardon? "Sorry sir, that's locked, I can't remove it. It's obviously there for a reason".
I wasn't having that. Once home Bear phoned another nurse at the surgery, and I fired off a quick email. Within 24 hours we were told we were right to question it, and after a thorough review of my records, it had been removed. Kind of them.
Next job was to go in to ask our GP to sign a form. We were gobstruck to be told "Ok, since you're determined, I will this time, but as I told you and your wife a couple of days ago, this is a waste of your time and mine!" We explained, bluntly, we had no idea what the hell he was on about. He looked at the written record. Looked at the screen. Looked puzzled. Scribbled something on the written record.
"You were here a couple of days ago?" Nope "Diabetic, right?" Yup. And Stroke. And TIA's. "Stroke?" Yup. "Stroke?" Can't you tell? "You have some id?" We did. He signed, asking me to come in for some blood tests, and attend a practice nurse appointment a week later.
We made a point of getting that appointment with a nurse we'd known for many years.
Ten days later...
"This is very odd Dray. Your blood tests are way out of wack. Super large platelets, liver function tests up the spout, kidney function is....well...." "We usually only see this kind of result with long term, er....." Lemme guess. 'Substance Abuse'? "Yes. But it just doesn't happen overnight. There's a long history. You don't have a history. May I take some more samples? See you in a week?"
A week later. "Clear. Everything's clear. It never happened. That is very, very strange. I'll have to get back to you"
They never have.
I've discovered that I've not received hospital outpatient and phsyio appointments, going back years. They were cancelled by phone anyway. It was only through my contacts with other stroke survivors over the net that I've found I've only had 10% of the physiotherapy, rehab and social services help I should have had because of cancelled hospital appointments. Worse, my written records contain lots of "failed to attend or cancelled" letters from hospitals :(
I have an appointment due. Guess who's just fired off an email to the Practice Manager explaining our very strong suspicion that there is another couple using that surgery with the same names, and that when we attend, they should ask us for id and our patient id numbers, even though the appointment is just for me.
That's the polite version of what I think.
The Curious Case.......
Of another me. As if one wasn't enough :)
It has to be remembered that I never, ever go anywhere unaccompanied. Never. So it isn't me being absent-minded.
I'd turn up for diabetic podiatry appointments at town centre clinic, to find I'd already been, or phoned up to cancel. They took some convincing I hadn't. So they'd make me another appointment, only for it to happen again. And Again. Always the phone cancellations.
We all got fed up in the end. They stopped asking me to go. After a few months, they moved podiatry services to our local surgery, and I was invited to attend. So we turned up, making darn sure I had the letter. Guess what? Yup.
That left them scratching their heads. More, they confirmed my name, and Bears, and thatshe'd been with me. Grudgingly they admitted that 'perhaps' there'd been a mix up.
A few weeks on, yet another letter. This time, we phoned up to confirm first. Only to discover that the visiting podiatrist had "refused to attend for THAT patient". So that was the end of that.
In the end we compromised. The diabetic nurse, who knows me well, volunteered to do the work at my six monthly appointment. Time rolled on for our yearly influenza injection. We arrived only to find we'd both just had it. We rolled up our sleeves to show the GP. More head scratching.
Later, I had a practice nurse appointment. Browsing the computer screen, I noticed the phrase 'substance abuse'. Pardon? "Sorry sir, that's locked, I can't remove it. It's obviously there for a reason".
I wasn't having that. Once home Bear phoned another nurse at the surgery, and I fired off a quick email. Within 24 hours we were told we were right to question it, and after a thorough review of my records, it had been removed. Kind of them.
Next job was to go in to ask our GP to sign a form. We were gobstruck to be told "Ok, since you're determined, I will this time, but as I told you and your wife a couple of days ago, this is a waste of your time and mine!" We explained, bluntly, we had no idea what the hell he was on about. He looked at the written record. Looked at the screen. Looked puzzled. Scribbled something on the written record.
"You were here a couple of days ago?" Nope "Diabetic, right?" Yup. And Stroke. And TIA's. "Stroke?" Yup. "Stroke?" Can't you tell? "You have some id?" We did. He signed, asking me to come in for some blood tests, and attend a practice nurse appointment a week later.
We made a point of getting that appointment with a nurse we'd known for many years.
Ten days later...
"This is very odd Dray. Your blood tests are way out of wack. Super large platelets, liver function tests up the spout, kidney function is....well...." "We usually only see this kind of result with long term, er....." Lemme guess. 'Substance Abuse'? "Yes. But it just doesn't happen overnight. There's a long history. You don't have a history. May I take some more samples? See you in a week?"
A week later. "Clear. Everything's clear. It never happened. That is very, very strange. I'll have to get back to you"
They never have.
I've discovered that I've not received hospital outpatient and phsyio appointments, going back years. They were cancelled by phone anyway. It was only through my contacts with other stroke survivors over the net that I've found I've only had 10% of the physiotherapy, rehab and social services help I should have had because of cancelled hospital appointments. Worse, my written records contain lots of "failed to attend or cancelled" letters from hospitals :(
I have an appointment due. Guess who's just fired off an email to the Practice Manager explaining our very strong suspicion that there is another couple using that surgery with the same names, and that when we attend, they should ask us for id and our patient id numbers, even though the appointment is just for me.
That's the polite version of what I think.
I've pointed out I rarely use my very common first christian name, and experienced nurses at the surgery use a nickname. Wish me luck.
2 comments:
mmm, so this is still happening, very odd, just a thought but is there any CCTV footage of the 'other you' when they are attending for appointments? or perhaps take in a photo of you and bear for your files so they know its you.
don't let this drop, it is your health they are messing with!!
oh if you have a spare £50 you can get a copy of your medical notes, hubby did when we took Royal Mail to tribunal the other year, mind you it took a while as we had to get past the dragon of a receptionist,which just happened to be the Dr's wife! they seemed very reluctant for us to have a copy of the medical notes for some reason, the Dr in question ' retired' shortly after that.
Josie x
I hadn't thought of that. I had noticed last time I went that there is CCTV in the waiting room (those little black bulbous things on the ceiling)
50 quid? Spare? Blimey :)
This is what the NHS say
http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/fees-for-accessing-medical-or-health-records.aspx
Yeah. Still going on. Amazing.
Funny enough, the nurse who refused to remove 'substance abuse' from my record also retired. Odd, eh?
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