My good friend Nick, who I met on Ward 41 back in 2016, was given his "farewell dose" of morphine at his home this afternoon.
He'd won many battles against his illnesses for over a decade, before losing this last fight.
He was a big man with a big heart, always happy, and one of the kindest people I've ever met.
Our condolences go out to Graham, his husband, who was with him to the end and who let us know the sad news today.
When a system error at my GP's surgery ended up with me being given that fifth Covid-19 vaccination, just one week after I'd had my fourth, we suspected that it would screw up the various admin/record systems that are associated with the vaccination programme.
True to form, getting a Spring Booster jab has been an ordeal akin to jumping through fiery hoops.
When the Spring Booster programme started, I tried to book online. That failed, so I was advised to call 119 to discuss it with a real person. That person took all of the details and decided that I was due another jab, but one of the Haematology team would have to request it. I emailed the Hambleton Clinic Haemo docs to ask them to make that request.
Three weeks later and nothing had happened, so I asked them again during the telephone consultation that had been booked for 20th April (but which didn't actually happen until 21st April, as they'd missed me off the call-list). The haemo doc agreed that I was due another jab, and said that she'd make the required request ASAP.
That Haemo doc was true to her word... the next morning I was woken by a woman calling from the UHL Booking Office. Yes, the UHL Booking Office which fcuks up the parts that other booking offices can't reach. I explained that I'd had five jabs, she said that I'd meant four. I restated "five", she said that one of them would have been a flu jab. I re-restated "five" and then she imploded, told me that I couldn't possibly have had five jabs already, and said that she'd need to refer back to the requesting Haemo doc.
Monday morning... I contacted the UHL Booking Office again. They still couldn't book me in, but gave me the contact email address for VacHub. Dedicated Vaccination Hub staff. People who actually know what they're talking about. Within the hour I'd sent VacHub the whole story via email, and we spent a few hours exchanging info. The upshot was that after consulting a fair list of people, they couldn't jab me because their "Green Book" guidelines didn't allow it. They'd contact the requesting Haemo doc to inform her.
Well, that Green Book was like a red rag to a bull. Within the hour I'd read it, understood it, and used bits of it in email messages sent back to VacHub. The key bit was that antibody counts wane over time, that waning is not related to how close together the most-recent vaccinations had been given. I argued that they were so close together that they could be considered as one dose. Therefore, the key indicator for being boosted was how long ago that latest combi-dose had been given, and that was three months. The truth about the Green Book guidelines was that rather than not allowing me to have a sixth jab, it had no provision for anyone in my situation - and no go-to reference or process for dealing with anyone not fitting their "normal" profile.
Tuesday dawned, and I was called by the requesting Haemo consultant. She claimed that she'd assumed that I'd had only four jabs, and had based her request on that. When she'd actually checked my record and found that I'd had five jabs, she'd changed her mind. She explained it well, I saw her point of view, and I agreed that I'd given it my best shot and had lost this battle.
But today it all became clear. My use of Green Book reasoning had made some of the VacHub staff think again. They called me to explain. The VacHub staff don't access NHS records directly, they use NIVS (The National Immunisation & Vaccination System), and that system had no record of the GP system-error jab which I had on 28th January. Compare that to my TPP SystmOnline record (GP-based) which records all five jabs. We can't compare it with my proper full NHS record, as I have no access to that. Anyway, the data-flow's not ideal and a lot of it is one-way only - see here.
The upshot was that too many people had too many differing opinions based on which system they had access to. That's the NHS for you!
They decided that another jab would be safe, and less of a risk than a Covid-19 infection/hospitalisation, so they offered me a choice of jab appointments and venues.
Five hours later and I'd been jabbed again. That's SIX. And because the jabbing doctor applied a liberal dose of common-sense - he actually took the time to listen, think, record and discuss - we managed to get my jab-record back on track for any future round of boosters. In theory, there shouldn't be any more fiery hoops. Hats off to the VacHub staff, I say.
Read it and weep, Sarah. You said it couldn't be done...
Now lets move on to the painful/tender left breast issue...
Back on 3rd March I was rudely awakened by one of the GP's docs flying a desk at my local surgery. I'd had a face-to-face appointment booked for 12:30 to try to get some treatment regarding the "rotator-cuff injury" that first became an issue in February 2021, but Dr. K. S. fucked up - for some bizarre reason the £millions spent on his professional training/salary counted for nothing when he woke me up at stupid o'clock in the morning, claiming that I'd arranged a telephone consultation. After I'd torn him a new one he said to attend at 12:30, but he called again at stupid o'clock + 15 minutes, asking for me to attend at 11:00.
Some people just don't know when to back off, and this doc was one of those people. He'd set himself up for what happened later...
More on that MaxFax saga...
I called the UHL Fooking Office today, regarding that pair of appointments:
The phone-jockey said that the appointment for 29th March had been cancelled on the 24th... the same day that the 31st March appointment was generated.
Clearly they must think that I'm psychic, as the second letter doesn't say anything about any cancellation or postponement.
Then the phone-jockey claimed that on 24th March they sent out a separate letter regarding the cancellation. Now, I'd have thought that it would have been in the same postal run as the new appointment, and would have arrived here on Saturday 26th. Indeed, any sane person would have detailed the cancellation in the second appointment letter... or would have put both letters in the one envelope. But no, common-sense did not prevail.
So far I've seen neither hide nor hair of said cancellation letter, so I reckon I've been fed yet another helping of admin cop-out bullshit.
As I said, there really is no foreseeable end to the sorry tale of UHL Booking Office's ineptitude.
And yes, I understand that their "no tolerance anti-abuse policy" covers telephone conversations...
but I've got news for them...
I have a similar policy, mine covers abuse of my patience, and includes an anti-bullshit clause.
The MaxFax saga goes on...
After way over a year of both my GDP and MaxFax leaving my LR7 to rot in place rather than treat it, MaxFax got around to extracting it on Sunday 6th February. The locum dental consultant did an epic job with inadequate (paediatric) dental tools, having to resort to drill, scalpel and brute force to remove about 20 bits of shattered molar roots, and putting in half a dozen stitches to close the wound. I was given antibiotics sufficient for five days, and sent home. In typical fashion, the letter from that clinic eschews the facts and states that the job was done on a Saturday, presumably meaning on the 5th February. Ho hum, no great shakes.
But that clinic letter also states that they would review me in "three to four weeks' time", so that would have been any day from Saturday 26th February to Sunday 6th March inclusive, right?
Wrong.
UHL Booking Office ignored the principles of the Gregorian Calendar that the rest of the western world has been using for nearly half a millennium, and decided that "three to four weeks' time" would mean Tuesday 22nd February. Four to twelve days too early, that calculation depending on more factors than I've got teeth.
At that review it was clear that the first lot of antibiotics hadn't prevented infection, so I left with a second course of them, and with the requirement for another review "in two weeks' time" to see if the infection had been cleared. So that would have been Tuesday 8th March, right?
Wrong again.
Try Tuesday 29th March. Exactly three weeks late:
Well, we have to take what we can get, so when the reminder text arrived on Tuesday 22nd March, I duly confirmed that I would attend:
All sorted, right?
Wrong yet again.
This arrived this morning:
Clearly it doesn't say that the Tuesday 29th clinic is cancelled or postponed, so I have to assume that it's a bona fide appointment for me to attend on Thursday 31st March.
As it stands, I need to attend twice in three days to have two different people look at the battle-scars from one extraction. It's utterly nonsensical.
There really is no foreseeable end to the sorry tale of UHL Booking Office's ineptitude.
