I had a cardiologist appointment by phone yesterday. It wasn’t done by a doctor, it was one of those physician associates. They hadn’t read my notes until the call happened. They told me the bubble study echo showed I had a thrombus in the heart but the MRI in October had said it was gone and I’m on Rivaroxaban. I might have to have another MRI. He couldn’t however make any of these decisions and would need to speak to a doctor. He also said he could only organise a blood test at the hospital which requires a huge wait whereas I could have this done locally.
sorry for ranting but I’d just need to get it off my chest. Unsure why I can’t speak directly to a doctor - the call did not help whatsoever
Written by
Coffeelover2
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
I am so tired of the inferior interactions generated by such inexperienced and little qualified staff. I know the nhs is under pressure but this just isnt good enough in my opinion.
It feels as though we are constantly in a holding position, ok they have given us an appointment so ticked a box at their end but at what cost potentially to the patient. I cant imagine doctors are too happy with this situation as the buck stops with them if something goes wrong. What a mess we are in.
All I can say is to take it up with the hospital, ring PALS and shake some trees until you get proper input from medics. This is our hearts here not a random cut on our little finger. It we continuously accept lesser care then all we will ever get is lesser care. Good luck.
100% agree. Don’t know why I couldn’t speak to a doctor or they hadn’t read my notes. They could have booked the test if I actually need one. Thanks for replying
Especially on the phone, so called 'doctor's' rant on trying to fit you into one of their little boxes, as they say over here in Northern Ireland "to pan you off", usually an inexperienced nurse trying to 'clear' the back log, I can usually tell because the usual expression in my NHS Health Centre when they actually see me is "OH?" and start scratching their head in 🤫😵🙃🤔 as they browse through them?
I’ve written to pals wanting them to investigate as to why they didn’t take my worries seriously when I took him to A and E with extremely high heart rate and a history of Af with one ablation . They put him at zero risk of a stroke on that scale thingy although he had AF didn’t even give him blood thinners . Two days later he had a major stroke . We also went to the doctors the day after as I still wasn’t happy , still nothing Jist given old heart medication rampiril. Havnt heard back from the investigating officer yet . My husband can no longer drive because he has lost 50% vision in the right side of both eyes . He now has heart failure as his heart was beating fast for so long, unable to work anymore and aphasia where he has problems with communication reading and writing . So you’ll understand why I want answers .
Absolutely you want and need answers. This is a despicable way to treat people. What a mess. So sorry you and your husband are having to deal with such appalling treatment or lack of more like. What is to become of us if this is the best we can expect.
I was listening to a TV vet the other day and the amount of treatment and options there are for animals was wonderful to hear but then of course thats largely insurance based and private care. When it comes to humans it seems if we want and need the best of care its via a private route, as if we aren’t paying into the system via national insurance throughout our working lives.
What a mess it is and extremely scary. I was taken to a and e back in January, the treatment was dreadful, the place was filthy, looked and felt like a war zone. Push hard for better help, hope your contact with PALS results in some improvements. Wishing you and your husband well. Take care.
In the province of Ontario, Canada our scammer premier is working at switching our publicly funded healthcare system to private and it scares the heck out of many of us. There is no way that anyone should have to pay out of pocket for treatment when our tax dollars are covering it, but that's what could happen if Ford gets his way. We do not want what the US has. People are going bankrupt paying for necessary health treatment.
Agreed. Its likely the outcome here unless we recognise it and do something about it. Run services down to dust then slip in an alternative. I am totally non political just a scared observer with a good few years behind me and a keen eye on what's going on. Hope you arent dragged along the US route either.
What a mess it all is. I am not for private medicine, we just dont know where to turn sometimes and paying seems our only option. Pleased to hear you are getting the help you need now. Best wishes.
Same consultants as in NHS. I go Private but it’s not without its own aggravations AND there is no emergency care! Just gad heart ablation one day! If I needed more after care I would have been transferred to another hospital
Vets are better qualified in various different animals! Sone years ago my vet told me in far flung areas of the UK vets treated humans! Sadly no longer able as the facility was removed 😕
I guess they have to have an added dimension skill wise given the multi various types of animals they treat with the many different animals they cater for.
My cat Harvey had had what might have been a seizure, we had to take him to specialist, cost thousands. The insurance company wanted all the tests but then they didn’t pay it all and we had a bill of £1000+ !!
I think it's a way of clearing appointment stats and saying the list is being dealt with. I'm always checking since I saw one last year and didn't know until they said at the end they had to consult wit their superior for medication to be prescribed. Now I say are you the "doctor"? It s so bad how patients are being treated, and there's also anaesthetists associates now too. It actually scares me the direction NHS is going.
hi I am in total agreement nhs seems to be so badly managed ,I really feel that I do not get a very professional service when ever I have to attend hospital .as for GPS what other line of work would you do absolutely no preparation for seeing or talking to a client by phone or face-to-face , why when the receptionist ask so many questions and make you jump through hoops to get an appointment , can the GP take five minutes to review your case notes before they see you , I think that has happened to me once in the last 3 years and that was with a young locum. who was very professional .
rant over just need to get somethings of your chest.
I would bet a pound to a penny that, as we write, some bright sparks will be commissioning an AI program to talk to annoying patients who want to know things. Speaking to an "associate" will be a luxury, let alone conversing with an actual consultant.
I wasnt too impressed with the nurse i spoke to last week on the phone. She asked me how id been but then it felt like she was trying to railroad me and tell me how I was feeling and play it down. I stood my ground as i wanted to know how they could say how fit i was now without doing some sort of tests on me before i returned to work. She eventually acquiesced and said theyd do a stress test and scan but it felt like I was being brushed off and told to just get on with it. She wanted to put it down to mental anxiety even though my notes said i need a 48 monitor doing for arrhythmia.
Im doing everything i should, taking my meds as directed, cardio rehab classes and seeing a counsellor.
I think quite rightly I meed a physical checkup by them to see what state i am in before i go back to my job which is quite demanding.
In my line of work if something breaks, you fix it but then must also test it properly before its put back into service.
It's all an exercise in making it appear, on paper, that they are powering through the lists.In one job I had, the powers that be wanted a statistic that hadn't previously been collected. The "target" was a figure just plucked out of the air. We were given advice on how to interpret information given to us to make it seem that people came into the criteria. We were told "If we give them what they want they'll leave us alone."
No doubt the hospitals have to show that people are contacted within a certain time, but this way of doing it is not only an exercise in futility but another waste of resources resulting in nothing positive for the patient.
I was originally told I was to have a face to face with my cardiologist, then got a letter to say it had been cancelled and I was to have a phone consultation, I phoned the hospital and told them I don’t want a phone consultation and that I wanted a face to face with my cardiologist or someone that knew about my case, low and behold got face to face the following week even although it wasn’t my consultant it was someone that knew all about my procedure and my concerns
I had a angio ct in September last year hospital said it must be done in September, scheduled to speak to cardio nurse regading test if aneuryrism and aorta has grown April 6months plus later to relay results via telephone and ask me if im ok, guess if i wasnt they would respond quicker. Surely this could be done via my doctors receptionist ?
HiI'm so sorry you had this experience. This is the NHS I'm afraid. Afyer I had a double CABG ladt year I was supposed to get a call 12 weeks later from the surgeon. I had all my notes and questions ready and didn't receive a call. I phoned his secretary and she was lovely but told me she had no idea if he was even in the hospital!!?? In the end one of his registrars phoned me and has no.idea who I was, and couldn't wait to get me off the phone. It was a box ticking exercise and no good at all for the patient. I hope you get to speak to someone who can answer your questions and concerns. Take care.
I have chased to no avail 3 outstanding appts for my husband. The request for ENT because an abnormality identified in neck while having head MRI has been triaged as routine so12 weeks at least ( but that was October last year). Appts clerk lovely but doesn't know which clinic he'll be referred to. Still waiting for angiogram required before referral to regional centre re aortic valve issues, told in August 23 "a couple of months" Have left several messages with waiting list but always ansaphone and never get back.Neurology, he can self refer for 12 months and memory clinic appts taking 9 -12 months but they at least rang back.
I'm a retired nurse and try soooo hard to be even handed, but find it heartbreaking as do younger colleagues still working.
Although not a member of this ‘club’ I thoght I would add my twopenoth!
I reported my symptoms Jan 2021 to GP told all in the head. 1year on and paid to see to Consultants.
By this time symptoms had morphed in 2 directions. One NAD and one TMJ. referred to maxofacial.
Symptoms getting worse.
Over 12 month wait and got a sudden cancellation this passed Friday at maxo. Seen in a completely empty outpatient department by a dental nurse! Got absolutely nowhere and discharged back to GP. SO 3 years and counting nowhere near whats going on still in increasing pain and back to where I started except she said your pain is real don’t let them say it is not.
I have had no alternative but to financially pay into this system all 78 years of my life and this is the end result. Surely in other circumstances this would be fraud?
I had an ablation in September and was told I’d get a follow- up appointment 3 months later, in December, which actually came for February, 5 months after my ablation and it was a phone consultation, as yours was. Well I was getting palpitations and I thought I needed to have a face to face one, as I had taken some ECG readings on my EMay portable monitor for the Dr to see and also I thought maybe I should have an ECG reading taken there, anyway, they agreed and sent me an appointment with the EP who did my Ablation, so I went last week. They checked my BP and weight and height and then I saw the EP and he looked at the readings on my phone and said they were nothing to worry about, everyone gets them and they’d more than likely disappear, which they seem to have done now, , thankfully. They didn’t need to do an ECG. It was reassuring though to know I had been checked over, which they couldn’t have done over the phone. I am having another appointment in September when it’ll be a year since my ablation and he said it will be a phone appointment next time. Then if all is ok, I will be signed off. I don’t like these phone appointments, but now it seems the norm, so you don’t always get a choice. If you think you really need one, ring up the Drs secretary and explain why a phone call won’t do, as I did and hopefully you’ll get a face to face one.Good luck.
I’ve just read about that. I saw one for an ear infection I had last year. Actually she was very thorough, but I had to wait for a prescription, as they can’t prescribe medication.
I’m afraid this is becoming all too often in England. I was told by a supposed specialist doctor that the echo showed a massively reduced Left Ventricle ejection fraction indicating heart failure. I paid for a private MRI with a well known cardiologist who completely ruled this diagnosis out as my ejection fraction was 65%. In the past I’d been told my peri had gone. Private cardiologist at a well known nhs hospital disproved it too.
It’s very concerning to say the least.
If you are not happy I’d complain to PALs and request to see an actual cardiologist.
I was supposed to have one last August but nothing 6 months later. If you phone secretary say will ring back but very rarely do. Don't know what's going on at moment with NHS seems very random on most things
Coffeelover2, rant on. Who wouldn't be angry given the treatment (or no treatment) received by you and your respondents on here?
Appointments to see a cardiologist are little better in my area of Scotland: almost twelve months now and only one 'phone call in that time, to ask if I wanted to stay on the waiting list! (Yes was the answer: although symptoms had not worsened, neither had they lessened.) The 'official' waiting time after referral from a GP is eight weeks.
Because I've not encountered one (yet), I wasn't aware that the use of a physician associate instead of a doctor had become widespread. (Another advantage of rural living?) The information gained through this community is certainly useful.
Sympathy with your rant. This is what a collapsing health service looks like. Physician associates seem to be something else imported from the US, where they run shopfront clinics tending to people who cannot afford private medical insurance. I used one of those clinics as a tourist and it was better than nothing but far from thorough; I still ended up in A&E before I could fly home, but that's another story. Over here, PAs seem to be deployed as another layer of triage. They are fine for dealing with the idiots who will call out an ambulance for a stubbed toe (a story I actually heard from a paramedic), but not qualified to handle anything major. Opinion seems divided as to whether they help doctors or merely create extra work.
Ten years ago I was living with a doctor and used to skim through the BMJ. What struck me was the classified section: page after page of adverts for consultant or training positions at hospitals all across the UK, in all disciplines. There were not enough staff even a decade ago, and at the time we could not have imagined the nightmare we find ourselves in today.
The government promised to double the number of medical school places by 2031. Within the last week they quietly stepped back from this and limited the increase to just a few hundred extra places rather than the thousands promised. It is not enough.
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
Phone call from hospital 
A Hospital admission and another failed attempt at a CT Angiogram 😥
Angiogram and AVR hospital appointment waiting times.........
Update on husband with severe LVSD
