Good Morning - could you advise again please

[Whatamug1]

Consultant to Consultant Letters

Morning there .....a bit of advice please. I was asked to an appt with Cardio Consultant at my local hospital. While there she said "I've only just received the letter" she also asked to c my AliveCor. To cut a long story shorter....I took it up and she said "ah - I can make necessary amendments to my letter". (I've been a bit everywhere with thoughts - friend dying/dog dying etc). When what she said dawned, I contacted her secretary & asked for a copy of this letter & she said I'm copied in to everything. But I'm not .....the letter the Consultant mentioned I haven't seen, nor have I received her reply ??? This was 2 wks ago x thank you Ann

[Basia12]

Hi Ann this happened to me my cardiologist always forgets to copy me in and in the next appt with him he apologises and prints a copy of old correspondence there and then .Also when this has happened in the past and I want the letter sooner I have gone to my Gp ( the cardio has never forgotten to copy them in thank god!) and they have always photocopied it for me without any trouble hope this helps x

[Whatamug1 in reply to Basia12]

Many thanks

[jennydog]

It's most important that you see these letters. I say this because I have been appalled at the mistakes in 2 recent letters about me.

1) Arrythmia nurse wrote: she suffers from light headedness and breathlessness. The truth is that I do not and they were never mentioned.

2) Cardiologist wrote: I now have the results of your 24 hr monitor which shows one incident of AF. The truth is that it was a 7 day monitor and the incident was on day 4.

Re the light headedness, the EP wrote to me stating that this could not be removed from my records but that he had noted that I denied it. ( can you imagine the trouble this would cause were I to have a car accident? )

Always make sure that you see letters following any consultation.

[Whatamug1 in reply to jennydog]

My thoughts exactly - there's such a history of 'med mistakes' & know I need to avoid these (Im correcting these already this time). Awful that you can't trust.

My father used to say "the hospitals are full of Drs mistakes as are the mortuaries".

He was training as a pathologist prior to the last war!!!

Guess things havent changed then x

[Finvola in reply to jennydog]

'Re the light headedness, the EP wrote to me stating that this could not be removed from my records but that he had noted that I denied it. '

That is frightening! I can understand a reluctance to change a medical record but you would have thought that something so important to your lifestyle should be deemed to be correct. (And i don't like that word 'denied' as it has implications).

[jennydog in reply to Finvola]

Hi Finvola, I corrected the Arrythmia Nurses's letter and gave a copy to the EP. ( my son teaches English so I'm good at that ) It contained 4 major inaccuracies, 5 grammatical errors and numerous spelling mistakes. I have kept copies of all letters including the one stating that he could not remove the breathlessness detail..

I would now refuse to have any dealings with this woman. My experiences with Arrythmia Nurses has not been good. By contrast my EP and Cardiologist have been excellent.

It is concerning that something that is wrong cannot be altered from your records. It makes it very important to stay vigilant.

[Whatamug1 in reply to Finvola]

They're a law unto themselves. Went to Drs & retrieved my 'copy' ...horrified with the wording. She also states that my "EF" is down another 2% from my last Echo - but I'm almost certain that only another echo/ultrasound could ascertain this ! That my cholestral is way to high (yet her cardio team took me off Statins for my last echo...& it goes on. I shallnt be continuing with my local hospital ....My hearts just deteriorating in front of Me/Family/friends & I'm left playing a waiting game because of slipping through a net. I didn't slip anywhere ...it's their neglect that's killing me. Sorry - feeling pretty passionate at the mo'. but need to calm down...

[Finvola]

Ann - I have a file of copies of every piece of paper created by doctors and nurses since I was diagnosed 16 months ago. Apart from being useful to show to a doctor away from home, it allows me to check what is happening. My GP has a note on my file that I get copies of all documentation 'for patient's personal medical file'.

[Whatamug1]

Well all I can say is that Im not worried about dying (being a bit of a Buddhist) but I'm not allowing other people's inability to do their job properly, kill me.

Poor all of us and everyone else. Guess it's like car mechanics - some do a poor job, some an ok job and some excel but at least you can take your car back if it's not fixed!!!