Worried...update: Thank you everybody... - Atrial Fibrillati...

Atrial Fibrillation Support

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Worried...update

Wightbaby profile image
12 Replies

Thank you everybody for your kind replies and advice.

I phoned 111 again at 9.30 last night, as had not had promised call. Got an apology and a little more info taken. (I told THEM about PAF and previous blood clot in same arm, 7 years ago, as no past history was asked for). Was told some one would call me within 6 hours. Someone certainly did at 2 am! Said he was checking in on me. He wasn't a clinician but one would be phoning me soon. I didn't sleep much after that!!

Clinician finally phoned at 06.45.(So almost 24 hours after my original call). I felt he didn't really engage with me. Asked me questions like "had I trapped it some where?" (er................I think i would know that!!) " was i restricting the blood flow somehow?" I insisted it WAS NOT an injury. I had no pain and had just woken up with it .I said it had faded but stressed it was very vivid when I called for advice, and I had taken a photo of it.

He didn't seem to think it was cause for concern (Reynauds not mentioned). Personally I don't think he knew what the cause could be. I began to feel like I was wasting his time.......I asked what i should do if it happened again and he said "call 111 or your own GP!"

Not really satisfied with the service I got, to be honest

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Wightbaby profile image
Wightbaby
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12 Replies
baba profile image
baba

“Not really satisfied with the service I got, to be honest”

I agree.

Jalia profile image
Jalia

Sound very incompetent. So frustrating. I know just how you feel.

Ducky2003 profile image
Ducky2003

Sometimes 111 are more interested in getting through their script. On a couple of occasions, I have advised that I am the patient only to be asked "is the patient breathing?" 🙄🙄🙄. I would just go down to A&E next time. It's not ideal when you're trying to go down the considerate route but sometimes, you have to.

jeanjeannie50 profile image
jeanjeannie50

Sorry you were put through this and ended up with no answer as to the cause. I would have been worried like you if I'd had the same thing happen. At least the reply from Hidden must have relieved your worry a little.

I bet this sort of symptom could have been diagnosed quickly by an experienced mature GP, but are there any of those left? One of my old GP's had been in charge of a hospital in the wilds of Nepal, three days walk from a road. My goodness that man knew everything. Another talked so much letting you know about the condition you had that his patients appointments were always running really late. He was so nice we never minded waiting.

rothwell profile image
rothwell

Well this may have been solved by a visit to your GP but of course that is almost an impossibility now.....hence the tremendous rise in calls to 111 and (often subsequent) visits to A and E which , according to the news, are rising dramatically. I still don't know why GPs have been so protected during this pandemic when nurses in my GP practice ave been run off their feet. You did not deserve to have that trauma.

rosyG profile image
rosyG

Very annoying!! You should let your local health authority know as it’s unacceptable delay here. I agree about going to A and E if it happens again you need someone to see in real time

Physalis profile image
Physalis

I think this sort of thing is quite common. My doctor said it was either a blood disorder or trauma, sent me for blood tests which were normal. It wasn't trauma either

This may help

healthunlocked.com/nras/pos...

Hiya Wightbaby,

So sorry to read of your experience. I know I have got cynical in my old age but my experiences over the last 18 months suggest to me that because of CoVid our NHS is in the process of subtly changing and within another 12 months it will be a seriously different organisation than we have been used. While I have my AF well controlled ( although my heart does chuck several brief 'Wobblies' a year) my Osteoarthritis is much less so and through this condition I feel that the NHS/ Dept of Health are using CoVid as an underhand and not so subtle excuse to change and perhaps even run down the NHS in order to save money in one or more areas in order to spend it in others. Certainly I need convincing this is not so. I mean how can an orthopedic surgeon, a Consultant Physiotherapist or even a rank and file physiotherapist plead they are overworked and tired as a direct consequence of CoVid. I've been waiting since last September for treatment for OA, it is now ,only now, just starting to happen.

For goodness sake I have worked all through all lockdowns continuously, driving a bus, getting up at 04.10 hrs when the shift I am on dictates, I'm bloody tired too ! NHS staff aren't exactly on a desert island. Quality of staff is certainly one area that is a problem. I just ended up on the right day, at the right time in the wrong hospital - all thanks to damn useless Admin staff following some damn useless and out of date booking system procedure.

Sorry, didn't mean to rant and rave Wightbaby, but, welcome to the don't care NHS.

John

baba profile image
baba in reply to

"I mean how can an orthopedic surgeon, a Consultant Physiotherapist or even a rank and file physiotherapist plead they are overworked and tired as a direct consequence of CoVid"

Physiotherapists are crucial to recovery of patients who are or have been ventilated. They have been removed from usual places of work to help in areas most in need.

Even clerical staff have been involved as volunteers, with supervision, to help in patient care.

in reply to baba

Yes baba, I understand that - I have spent a few years working with physios but in a private sector, commercial environment. All I can say is the last thing I want is a clerk treating me, even under supervision, when the clerks cannot even get my appointments correct and save me a wasted 75 mile round trip down here in Cornwall. One of the poorest counties in Britain and with only ONE, JUST ONE major hospital to serve everyone, including all the tourists that flood the damn place and get, sick, have accidents, motoring and otherwise, have marine accidents the lot. The way the NHS is run and managed makes me almost want to choose Holby City as an option ! I have had to make complaints about the performance of the place including the Kernow CCG itself. I have even had a pre op assessment in December for cataract surgery, having been told it will be in 8 weeks hence, something relatively simple compared to cardiac surgery and eventually got the surgery the following July - but only because my MP intervened. And that was years before anyone could spell CoVid !

I suppose when it comes to it Cornish folk are treated differently to those folk in more wealthy counties, such as Surrey or Berkshire. Wretched service.

baba profile image
baba in reply to

Well in an ideal world there would be enough trained staff to cope with the pandemic but we live in the real world and every willing pair of hands were appreciated.

I grew up 50 miles from the nearest hospital so I understand that too.

Wightbaby profile image
Wightbaby in reply to

I live on the Isle of Wight, so we have the same problem during the summer as you do. We are smaller in comparison, of course.......but then so is our hospital!

If you want to see an EP you have to go to QAH at Portsmouth.

I am sure ablations aren't here either.

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