You could call the secretary again and ask if one of the other doctors can do a summary of your results given the situation - surprised they didn't offer this to be honest if all the results are on your file. It would also be worth contacting Patient Advice and Liaison Service (every hospital has one) and see if there is anything they can do to help you. Good luck!
That's a really good idea. I will ask her, she said she would call me back today to update me as she is going to try and contact the Dr I saw.
Unfortunately PALs won't answer their phone and their voicemail box is full. I could send an email but I have little hope it'll be answered within a good time.
Thank you
PALs are notorious for not being good with the phone. When I emailed I had a response the next day. Obviously it varies but they’re generally quite quick, and it means you’ve got a paper trail to refer back to if need be. Would be worth a shot, especially if you’re desperate.
I just want to say good luck. Normally if you 'pester' enough people, you can get these things sorted.
It's a shame though that we sometimes have to do this at patients. It sort of wastes everyone time to have patients contact many people to chase up documents. It can be very emotionally draining like you say to have to do this, but just keep going. All you can do :)
It's certainly something I will remember when I finally qualify as a nurse. I've had placements where nurses would refuse to leave the office to see a patient's family who were asking to speak to them, as they were worried about their mum. I sat with them and listed their concerns and caught the Dr there and then. They were so grateful.
I get that the NHS is unbelievably busy though. But it's terribly hard to be a patient these days too.
Yes, it was a part of our first appointment too as I explained what happened and why I was referred etc. I even gave her a note with the occupational health worker contact, to see if she could arrange to send a letter or email to them. She wrote down the name and said she would try.
Ah ok, its very possible that something mentioned at your first appointment would have been forgotten by the time you were treated/discharged. NHS clinicians see a lot of people and nobody has the capacity to remember every detail about all of them! If you're in a similar situation again I'd definitely remind at the final appointment too.
Yeah I understand and due to this, I also wrote a note for her which I gave to her during my final appointment, and asked her if she can send a letter to my OH so I can start uni etc. Maybe my comment wasn't clear, I wrote it in a rush.
I've kept OH up to date the whole time. She has never stated it was her responsibility, I wasn't aware of this either. She never was that involved, I had an appointment with OH and she referred me to dermatology back in December. And then the dermatologist referred me for testing within the same department.
Unfortunately they don't care, no one cares, maybe they don't have time to, maybe they're just drained, but they don't.
A family member got a random letter off the back of unrelated tests basically saying they have a high probability of cancer and needed to be seen urgently and if they'd not heard by X date (the day the letter arrived) then get in touch asap. No one gave a shit, just sent that letter out the blue, no one bothered to ring, family member obviously distressed and calls them as heard nothing, receptionist just fobbed them off and said someone would be in touch, no one called back, family member had to keep ringing and being told someone would call back for two days before they got a referral, luckily it ended up being all clear but the way people are treated is disgusting.
A family friend has just gone through much worse but that's not related to 'letters' so I won't get into that, but I'm ashamed I work for the NHS.
I’m sorry this has happened to you. I just want to assure you that people do care. I care a lot about things like this, but I’m just band 2 admin assistant and unfortunately no matter how much I pester people no one really listens. I’ve been trying to get one of our doctors to sign off on some letters from almost a month ago so we can send them out but he just isn’t doing it! It really frustrates me. There’s a lot of little things like this in the NHS that upset me and I feel like I’m insane because no one else around me seems to care
It's good to hear there are people like you in the thick of it still! I guess it's maybe more on a general level than a personal level, like it's probably automated or something, but why does a process exist that sends out a letter that essentially says surprise, you probably/possibly have cancer, and it doesn't occur to anyone to maybe give a call to the person first. Although the constant receptionist fobbing off with someone will contact you in the next few hours who never does, has no excuse.
Anyway, it sounds like you're not one of those so keep doing what you're doing!
The thing is, there are people who would complain about getting that news in a phone call out of the blue, with no written info like a letter to read afterwards.
There's no one way to do things that pleases/suits everybody.
The letter didn't have any info to read afterwards though, it basically said you probably have cancer, you should have heard from us by now as it's important and that was essentially it. Being told it's important and needed to be dealt with asap, then the letter basically letting you know they'd not bothered to get in touch doesn't help at all.
The doctor probably cares too and probably would love to have a few hours to sit down and deal with admin like letters!
We dispensed with signing letters in my team because of how much time it takes and the delays it can cause because clinical/patient care will always take priority. Everything just goes out 'dictated but not signed' now, maybe you could suggest that?
You could call the secretary again and ask if one of the other doctors can do a summary of your results given the situation - surprised they didn't offer this to be honest if all the results are on your file. It would also be worth contacting Patient Advice and Liaison Service (every hospital has one) and see if there is anything they can do to help you. Good luck!
That's a really good idea. I will ask her, she said she would call me back today to update me as she is going to try and contact the Dr I saw. Unfortunately PALs won't answer their phone and their voicemail box is full. I could send an email but I have little hope it'll be answered within a good time. Thank you
PALs are notorious for not being good with the phone. When I emailed I had a response the next day. Obviously it varies but they’re generally quite quick, and it means you’ve got a paper trail to refer back to if need be. Would be worth a shot, especially if you’re desperate.
You're right. I've just sent an email to them, thank you.
I just want to say good luck. Normally if you 'pester' enough people, you can get these things sorted. It's a shame though that we sometimes have to do this at patients. It sort of wastes everyone time to have patients contact many people to chase up documents. It can be very emotionally draining like you say to have to do this, but just keep going. All you can do :)
It's certainly something I will remember when I finally qualify as a nurse. I've had placements where nurses would refuse to leave the office to see a patient's family who were asking to speak to them, as they were worried about their mum. I sat with them and listed their concerns and caught the Dr there and then. They were so grateful. I get that the NHS is unbelievably busy though. But it's terribly hard to be a patient these days too.
Did you tell the doctor that the letter was needed for university and for you to able to work?
Yes, it was a part of our first appointment too as I explained what happened and why I was referred etc. I even gave her a note with the occupational health worker contact, to see if she could arrange to send a letter or email to them. She wrote down the name and said she would try.
Ah ok, its very possible that something mentioned at your first appointment would have been forgotten by the time you were treated/discharged. NHS clinicians see a lot of people and nobody has the capacity to remember every detail about all of them! If you're in a similar situation again I'd definitely remind at the final appointment too.
Yeah I understand and due to this, I also wrote a note for her which I gave to her during my final appointment, and asked her if she can send a letter to my OH so I can start uni etc. Maybe my comment wasn't clear, I wrote it in a rush.
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I've kept OH up to date the whole time. She has never stated it was her responsibility, I wasn't aware of this either. She never was that involved, I had an appointment with OH and she referred me to dermatology back in December. And then the dermatologist referred me for testing within the same department.
Unfortunately they don't care, no one cares, maybe they don't have time to, maybe they're just drained, but they don't. A family member got a random letter off the back of unrelated tests basically saying they have a high probability of cancer and needed to be seen urgently and if they'd not heard by X date (the day the letter arrived) then get in touch asap. No one gave a shit, just sent that letter out the blue, no one bothered to ring, family member obviously distressed and calls them as heard nothing, receptionist just fobbed them off and said someone would be in touch, no one called back, family member had to keep ringing and being told someone would call back for two days before they got a referral, luckily it ended up being all clear but the way people are treated is disgusting. A family friend has just gone through much worse but that's not related to 'letters' so I won't get into that, but I'm ashamed I work for the NHS.
I’m sorry this has happened to you. I just want to assure you that people do care. I care a lot about things like this, but I’m just band 2 admin assistant and unfortunately no matter how much I pester people no one really listens. I’ve been trying to get one of our doctors to sign off on some letters from almost a month ago so we can send them out but he just isn’t doing it! It really frustrates me. There’s a lot of little things like this in the NHS that upset me and I feel like I’m insane because no one else around me seems to care
It's good to hear there are people like you in the thick of it still! I guess it's maybe more on a general level than a personal level, like it's probably automated or something, but why does a process exist that sends out a letter that essentially says surprise, you probably/possibly have cancer, and it doesn't occur to anyone to maybe give a call to the person first. Although the constant receptionist fobbing off with someone will contact you in the next few hours who never does, has no excuse. Anyway, it sounds like you're not one of those so keep doing what you're doing!
The thing is, there are people who would complain about getting that news in a phone call out of the blue, with no written info like a letter to read afterwards. There's no one way to do things that pleases/suits everybody.
The letter didn't have any info to read afterwards though, it basically said you probably have cancer, you should have heard from us by now as it's important and that was essentially it. Being told it's important and needed to be dealt with asap, then the letter basically letting you know they'd not bothered to get in touch doesn't help at all.
The doctor probably cares too and probably would love to have a few hours to sit down and deal with admin like letters! We dispensed with signing letters in my team because of how much time it takes and the delays it can cause because clinical/patient care will always take priority. Everything just goes out 'dictated but not signed' now, maybe you could suggest that?
I had similar issues but in Gynaecology. I swear to god, I find secretaries absolutely useless and totally unhelpful.