Well!945 am came and went. So at 1115 I rang UHCW cardiology was told that she had had a few calls as Proff was running late. BUT ah she said ' it was a face to face appointment!'
Argh! So I pointed out that I was looking at my letter from yourselves saying telephone appointment, and also had 2 texts this week reminding me of my telephone appointment.
' Well ,he will probably try ringing you when you don't turn up, it does happen sometimes. But if not by 2pm call back and I'll rearrange'
Huh. So cancelled various other things I planned to do after call.
Mobile rang at 12 pm. ( I had given landlines as priority number due to poor signal here)
Dashed across the room...yup. Stopped as I picked it up. UHCW.
20 minutes later got back through to Cardiology.
' Ah yes ,you've been noted as Did Not Attend face to face or Telephone call. Your appointment has been rescheduled to..( wait for it.....) April 24th 2024.'
I am proud that I didn't swear out loud or throw the phone across room. I put on my best ex teacher Taking No Nonsense Of You voice, and very firmly declined this kind offer. I pointed out that this appointment was time sensitive,and that I was following their instructions re medication withdrawn etc etc. I said I wasn't going anywhere until this was sorted out,as I didn't see why I should wait 9 months due to someone's incompetence ...and so on and so forth.
I have face to face next Friday 28th 945am.
So actually a silver lining really!
Now where's the rest of that cake from my charity Tea yesterday?!
Thank you to all who have commented and wished me well. Next exciting installment ,same time,same place next week!
You gotta larf!!!
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wilsond
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I am lucky enough to live within 15 mins walk of my hospital. When things like this go badly wrong I walk over to the hospital and with only one exceptionI have managed to get another appoint. within a week. All very polite but determined and 'in not going anywhere until this is sorted out mode'.
Be funny if was in a comedic movie, but this is so typical, it's sad. Best of luck in the next installment and keep up your sense of humor in face of medical adversity
Had similar last year. EP rang, worried, to find out where I was, as on his list, it said face to face, but I emailed him a copy of my letter which said virtual. Good ol' UCHW
Goodness, that all sounds really farcical, what a joke!!! I hate anyone calling on my mobile phone, getting it from my bag takes long enough! Thank goodness you stood firm and rejected that appointment for a years time.
My daughter pays for her shopping with her mobile, just the thought of that makes me want to give up. My sister was in London last week and she said both Boots and M&S are now all self serve!
I was nervous to use my watch for payments, but now feel it’s safer than a card. If I take it off, then it needs a PIN to unlock it - whereas you don’t need a PIN for a card these days. (Below a certain amount.)
Also it has some sort or different card number appearing - don’t really understand that bit - so vendors don’t see you card number.
Of course I often have my card with me anyway just in case, which really negates that security thing a bit!
Getting messages and being alerted to phone calls on it is great. But I tend to pick up the call then wish I had scrabbled for a phone, if it’s a complicated one - and I look daft talking to my wrist!
🤣 . I've yet to chat to my wrist but it's useful when I'm seeing patients. I have my phone on silent and then forget to check later for missed calls. At least with the watch, it vibrates and I can see whose calling straightaway .......... and hopefully remember to ring them back 🤣.
I have very sensitive skin and any watch I try and wear makes it react badly. I have issues with my mobile too as I have to use a pin number to open it as I'm so old my fingerprints have virtually disappeared and my skin is so dry and it can't use biometrics to open the phone. By the time I've gotten the phone out and tried to open it the caller is long gone.
I think you might be able to disable those features Roy, it makes your phone more vulnerable but sounds as if it would be helpful for you. I have a Samsung too, so will investigate a bit.
So I don't use a pin or biometrics, I use the pattern which should be easier. There is a grid and you draw the pattern easiest for you to do with one finger without taking your finger off the screen.
I found an app (Dr Fone) that lets me use a pattern but you have to pay for it! There are a lot of bewildering videos on YouTube but the sound is not clear enough for me to follow them. I think I will stick to the pin thanks. At least it's reliable.
This reminds me of 1944 when I was an evacuee in Canada and an avid reader of the 'funnies' in the newspaper and my hero Dick Tracy Special Agent who had a two way radio wristwatch. I can remember then being amazed that he could do this!! 😀
I was on one of those family zoom meetings, where calls were flying about with people not being able to log on. I answered on my phone, then my brother called me Captain Kirk 🤣
and all the banks closing !!!! And ticket offices !! And many chemists!
And people only talk to their phones!
And” my chart “ gives test blood test results swiftly but with no explanations ..so one ( I) go to google to check . A stupid thing to do !! I always send myself into “ there is no hope mode”.
And you're tracked with every transaction you make! I used to use my phone and cards to pay for virtually everything (and I have an Apple watch as well), but then I discovered how much personal data I was sharing. This will only get more intrusive with the — now imminent — arrival of CBDCs.
So I now pay cash wherever I can. Of course it's not as convenient as waving a phone but at least nobody knows how much I spent on dog food today except me and the shop owner! 😆 (And shops love cash too because card transactions cost them a fortune in bank charges.)
And I never use self-serve tills any more either — putting people out of jobs as well as collecting more data, including facial recognition data.
Very true. I'd been looking at a dress on a website and my daughter told me of one that she'd been on that she thought was very reasonable. Went on there and right on the front page was the dress I'd been looking at for a quarter of the price - they must have known I'd been looking at it. I guess it's what we call a sprat to catch a mackerel, but this mackerel won't be so daft. I did buy it though.
How infuriating for you, so pleased you stood your ground and got an even better appointment and face to face too.
I had exactly the same thing with the hospitals anticoagulation clonic a couple of months ago to discuss changing to another med. Telephone app letter arrived giving date and a follow up text saying the same thing. When the time came I had an extremely nasty lady on the phone shouting at saying where was I, I was meant to be there and hadnt been bothered to turn up. I was furious and gave her a piece of my mind full throttle.
She checked and said well it should have been face to face but couldn't deny it said telephone. I had no time for her at that point, a complete waste of my time and hers. A few weeks later another lovely lady rang from the same clinic, was excellent and gave me so much help. We sure have to stand our ground, beyond infuriating. Good luck at your appointment.
I fear for those less able to stand up for themselves for whatever reason. My friend is leaving the NHS sadly, she says the system is top heavy on management but lacking on linking everything up.Glad you got sorted out Meadfoot xx
I go annually to see my Cardiologist in September, he always tells me to make my appointment in June for September so I can get a time that is convenient to me, but if I have an emergency in between, then to phone to be fitted in. This is South Africa and it is Private, he never keeps me waiting - his assistant has the patient in another room operating the fancy heart machines dobblers echos whatever they are all called, and you then go through to him and the computer has sent him all the information. If the assistant is unsure of something when operating the gadgetry, she calls him through. He is a perfect gentleman, absolutely no arrrogance, he did his post graduate Cardiology in Edinburgh - he is a pleasure to see.
Noooooooooooo!! You really could not make stuff like this up. Crazy. You must have been so stressed. If it were me, I’d have been absolutely distraught, with blood pressure no doubt rocketing sky high. You dealt with it all brilliantly - well done! Glad you’ve got a face to face appt now too. Do let us know how that goes! Jx
Good for you! And I need to add that I live in California and I was quite taken aback when I read the subject line of this post I definitely learned something new!
Cock up
phrasal verb of cock
INFORMAL•BRITISH
ruin something as a result of incompetence or inefficiency.
Brilliant well done.Its a right pain but we have to fight for any appointments now.I take interest in your posts as you and I had ablation around the same time.Like you ectopics and a few other runs of afib and supraventricular ectopics have reared their head again.I will definitely check my supposed telephone appointment in Sept now.
You couldn’t make it up could you. I had a similar thing a year or so ago but letter said both F2F and telephone. When I queried it I was told it was definitely a telephone appointment. The day came and you guessed it, should have been F2F. At least mine was sorted without a 9 month initial wait for new appointment.
Glad you got yours sorted without introducing anyone to new words to add to their vocabulary. My swear box would have been full and all 🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆would have been in a line. Hope you enjoyed a soothing slice of cake and cup of tea. x
OMG. I missed the earlier one and had to go back to read. This sounds similar to my epic in October 2021 when I shouted 'you're not an electrophysiologist? Why am I speaking to you? Bring me my electrophysiologist!'. A 6 minute conversation with the EP 2 hours later and ablation number 2 was set in motion. You do wonder don't you - is it really so difficult to pop into the great person's office between patients and say 'can you take Mrs X appointment by phone please?' Have we really lost the ability to think these days?
Well done for staying calm but firm. That situation might have provoked a melt down in many of us especially as YOU seemed to have been blamed for "not attending a face to face AND a telephone call". You couldn't make it up!I eagerly await the 28th but probably not as much as you 😄
The incompetence is unbelievable, well actually it isn’t after working in the nhs for 27 years, i alway said if it was a private company it would go bust through miss management. Good on you for Standing your ground, keeping your cool and not eating all the cake.
Sorry to hear what happened. It really gives the impression that they don't care! Good for you standing firm but how awful that you had to!!We pay such a high level of taxes it leaves you wondering where its spent? Not on health, education, social services or the emergency services..... So what? Where does the money go????
Well done you in standing your ground and not letting them get away with it….and not throwing the phone across the floor 😊 Good luck for next week and I hope it goes as planned 🤞
Oh I have to take my hat off to you for not losing the plot. How absolutely frustrating, but very well done for keeping calm and getting it sorted out. Best of luck on Friday.
Extraordinary! You couldn’t make it up! As, sadly, seems to be the case in so many areas these days! I hope you get extensive apologies when you get your face to face appointment. They must have known your experience would have been pretty stressful and, as we all know, with our heart condition, we must avoid stress!
This needs to be reported to PALS. The NHS is in a bad way as it is and actions like this are so avoidable. What a waste of an appointment by the hospital, well done for sticking to your guns and getting a face to face appointment next week.
Wilsond, I would love to hear your teacher's voice - I could do with it on occasions! Seriously though, well done on not accepting this nonsense. Enjoy the cake!
It's not just the confusion of what sort of appointment, it's the farce of being advised of an appointment by text, then an email saying there's a confirmation letter coming, then a letter, then an email to confirm. No sign of human intervention as it's probably all done by algorithm. Even then it just seems to me to be a poorly designed and executed system, sadly indicative of the competence of management within the NHS, wasting precious time, effort and money.
Sadly I know exactly how you feel. I had a telephone appointment with my cardiologist late last year and, on the basis of that,booked a holiday. Lo and behold, the week before the appointment, I got a letter moving my appointment to the week of my holiday. I immediately phoned them and, after being shunted around several departments, got through to a very rude lady who just couldn't understand why I couldn't take the call whilst on holiday. Eventually she agreed to send me another appointment. You guessed it, when I got back l received a letter saying that the doctor had phoned twice and hadn't got a reply.
Again, I phoned them and explained what had happened and was told that another appointment would be made.
A couple of weeks later, a letter arrived asking me to attend a clinic in a town about 10 miles away.
On the appointed day, I drove over there only to be told that the appointment was for a telephone call. No apology for it saying clearly on the letter, which I had with me, that I should attend the clinic.
Consequently, a mad dash home again and just managed to get through my front door when the phone rang with the doctor on the other end. Not the best preparation for a doctor's appointment.
As you say, it would be laughable if it wasn't so infuriating.
Very bothersome, upsetting and stress making to say the least. Just think of the expense to the NHS and the waste of time for all concerned. Seems to me that the administration of the NHS and all that unnecessary paperwork is very inefficient and worrying for the patient. Fingers crossed for next week
receptionist rung and asked if i could earlier as someone had cancelled!
i arrived earlier. their computer down and Dr h/specialist said he thought i had cancelled.
an examination took place. i had some notes with me.
he introduced me to CCB Diltiazem 1/2 dose.
too high. twinked it to 120mg AM then Bisoprolol. 2.5mg PM.
paid bill but not happy so complained also i needed more guiding dosages and at weekend. our NZ healthline got me the Dr on duty SUNDAY and WEDNESDAY NZ HEART FOUNDATION guided me.
BINGO.
H/Specialist refunded the total whilst i said keep 1/2.
The. H/Specialist's clinic was 2 hrs away so he either flew or drove and was visiting.
But. listen to this.. last March 2022.
I was given date of operation but day was wrong.
So with our ACC Accident and Emergency they booked taxi to airport, hotel stay
and ride home.
But a week prior the whole plan had to be moved to the day prior. I would have arrived on day of operation and too late because COVID testing was pre operations!
The following day 24 hrs later from GA there was a SH1 accident and I sat in the car 2 hours waiting for the accident to clear. 1/2 way home finally arrived at 7pm.
All ended well but incidents like this need checking and rechecking. A week day and date was never put together. It was DHB Northshore. Luckily it gave me 3 clear days in which to stop PRADAXA.
Even before that I rang to establish a pre operation appointment was a face to face but as I had just got back by a week having had a 3D scan I changed it to a telephone call. That date stayed the same excepted in their books the Dr Specialist was ringing me in the following week!
DHBs have now been banished and hospitals are not now allocated to place of residence. That was game changer in my case as I was referred out of my area as no one was removing Johnson & J Mesh kits to Northshore and the top surgeon. Northshore had earlier declined. ACC had declined as damage was luming but no evidence could be seen yet. 3 years later evidence showed when I could have an appointment. Northshore came to the party as soon as DHB status was banished.
I forgot about this incident. Its amazing how the brain turns off as I moved forward.
Also it took until 2021 December to get my AF controlled so no operation would have been done.
My daughter could have my surgeon yo do her thyroidectomy. Up here in Whangarei instead of her Northshore hospital which is closest.
Have to say Dawn, as nice as that cake looks, it also looks like the kind of sugar-loaded confection that most people on our forum would be wise to avoid!
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I definitely learned something new! 
Up 
totally fed up and confused :(
Ablation Redo 1 month follow up
DVLA - you couldn't make it up! 
