Posts tagged 'Fail'

Light blue touch-paper, retire to a safe distance.

Posted by on January 7th 2021 in A bit of a rant, Health, or lack thereof

Time and again I've told both the GP and the haematology consultants that neither can access, or be bothered to access, the records of the other when it comes to my meds, my clinical notes, my test results or my appointments. Time and again they have refuted my assertion. Time and again I've provided proof (and there's a lot of it), but they still insist that there's no comms issue.

You may well ask: "where's he going with this?"

Well, here's the latest. I'll try to break it into bite-size chunks so that it's easy to process (yes, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust Booking Office, I'm aiming this mainly at you)...

Last year, Leicester Glenfield set me up with a cardiology follow-up clinic, I was to go in to see The Professor on Wednesday 13th January 2021 @ 11:15. A few weeks back I got a letter telling me to stay at home, they would do a phone clinic instead, time and date unchanged.

Well, that's all fine and dandy for them, but seeing as I have to attend Leicester Royal for a haematology clinic at 11:30 the same day, I won't be staying at home, I'll probably still be driving to Leicester at 11:15. I've informed both Glenfield and the Royal, but so far nothing has changed.

Clearly they can't work together as a team even though they are both parts of the same NHS Trust, and allegedly share the same appointments database, but I've become used to banging my head against hard surfaces while trying to get them to wake up and smell the coffee.

But this afternoon I lost it big-time...

The postie delivered yet another NHS-branded envelope. I was hoping that it would be an invitation to get the COVID-jab, or maybe even a rearranged appointment for the cardio clinic, but no, it's an appointment for "MRI Internal auditory meatus Both".

And yes, you've guessed it, the appointment is set for Wednesday 13th. This one is at 08:00 and it's at Hinckley & Bosworth Community Hospital.

One morning, three appointments, three hospitals, one NHS Trust with no coordination. The front-line staff are heroic, but the booking admins are appalling.

Oh, and one more thing. My records state that I don't react well to the contrast agent that they'll probably want to put into me for the MRI scan, I usually end up having rigors, oxygen and a hospital bed for the night. That'll banjax the rest of the day good and proper.

On the 13th, if anyone tries to pull me over to tell me that I'm breaking the stay-at-home laws, there might be fireworks.

 

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory

Posted by on January 12th 2017 in A bit of a rant, Health, or lack thereof, LMAO!

So, with venesections every third Thursday and out-patient consultations every fourth Thursday, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that every 12 weeks the two sessions will fall on the same day. Today was such a day.

A month ago some bright spark at LRI decided that on such days it would be best to perform just the one set of blood tests, at LGH, on samples taken just before the venesection. Said tests were to cover everything needed for the venesection session at LGH and everything needed for the out-patient consultation at LRI about three hours later. LRI gave me an appropriately-completed bloods specimen form with attached samples bag to give to LGH on the day. It was, allegedly, a fool-proof idea...

I turned up at LGH early this afternoon, they took the blood sample and I handed them the form/bag from LRI. They said that they didn't need the form/bag as they would use their own, so they took away the LRI form/bag for disposal. They also said that they were now using a super-duper digital system on PDAs which would make data collection, storage and transfer much better. I was insistent that the tests would have to cover the requirements of both appointments and that the results would have to be available at LRI by 16:15. They were equally insistent that it would all work flawlessly. I was then bled and given saline as per usual. All good so far.

Of course, in accordance with my expectations and contrary to theirs, it didn't work at all. Nearly four hours later over at LRI the consultant couldn't find the test results in the database, so the consultation was a complete waste of time.

 

 

My Friday is now trashed. I have to wait in for a phone call - someone from LRI will be calling the land-line (but not the mobile) IF the results can be found. Oddly, even though they are going all hi-tech with PDAs and the like, and the results (and my records) should be on a database, they are not allowed to send me the results via text or email. For reasons of security the information has to be given verbally. How quaint!

But hey, they DO like to send me appointment-reminders via text - one seven days before each appointment, and another five days later - telling me that every missed appointment costs the NHS an average of £126.

We sure as Hell won't be doing it their way again. To quote Tolkien's Pippin: "Short cuts make long delays."

Maybe I should be charging "an average of £126" for this afternoon's fiasco?

Welcome to 2017.

Beligan

Posted by on December 19th 2016 in LMAO!, Lost in translation
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Nice chocs, rubbish ad:

 

Standards

Posted by on December 14th 2016 in LMAO!, Lost in translation
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Sometimes I despair:

 

All who tell people that good SPAG isn't important should hang their heads in shame...

before being crucified, shot, buried, dug up and then shot again just to be sure.

And no, I'm not BillC45, innit.

Currying favour

Posted by on November 18th 2016 in LMAO!
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 And the award for "Dumbest, Most Hilarious and Most Unhelpful Answer of the Year" goes to...

one of the food-serving staff in the LEat Street restaurant at Leicester Royal Infirmary.

Yesterday, while I was waiting for my lamb curry with rice to become sufficiently warm to pass the thermo-probe test, the next customer at the counter asked the server if the chicken dish was Halal.

With only a split-second of hesitation and with utter conviction the server responded with just one word:

"Mostly."

I looked at the other customer. She looked at me. We both had that "WTF?" look on our faces.

For a while words failed us, we couldn't speak for laughing.

Happiness comes from the most unlikely places.

Ellipsis Fail

Posted by on October 24th 2009 in LMAO!
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Unwanted visitors at Keswick Youth Hostel: