Sheffield hospital, England

[Grendall]

Hi all,

I have just moved from Leeds to Sheffield and just wondered if anyone is local to be under Sheffield and your experiences please xx

[mhos61]

There are a couple of forum patients’ at the Sheffield Hallamshire. Hopefully, they will see this post at some point and respond.

[Jazzyb50]

Hi, I've been under the Hallamshire hospital since 2007. No issues but only had one face to face appt since Covid. Drive thru bloods then a telephone call from consultant/registrar with results. Jane

[Grendall in reply to Jazzyb50]

Thank you for yo ur reply. I just wondered what their criteria as such was. I’m a bit surprised at you not having any face to face appointments, Leeds were good with that, I have only just gone on telephone appointments since January. I have just received a copy letter that Leeds have sent to the Hallamshire for an appt but I haven’t heard anything yet…..x

[Jazzyb50 in reply to Grendall]

The one face to face I've had was in March as I'd had some pain in my spleen area and thought it was PV related (it wasn't). I spoke to one of the nursing specialist's who was really good and organised a scan within two weeks and changed my telephone appt to face to face. At the hospital, the pre Covid packed out corridor was not busy at all. So I'm guessing they now prefer the phone call system.

[PVPVPV]

Hi there, welcome to Sheffield. I was diagnosed in Sheff 2009 but lived in London 2010-2015 at which point I returned to Sheff. I think haematology at Hallamshire Hospital do a good job, led by the consultant Dr Francis. There was an MPN patients' forum about 2019 and it was really good, with excellent contributions from Dr Francis and other clinical staff. I'm on telephone appointments but know I can do face to face if necessary. I really like this system. It saves me getting the car out, finding somewhere to park. It takes a car off the road so benefits the environment. I have my bloods done at the local surgery, although I have to make sure I plan ahead to make sure I get an appointment in time. I have PV and my conditions is mainly stable so this system suits me. I have an emerging problem with skin and had a face to face about this. I don't have venesections now but when I did, the nurses were great and a couple did a sky-dive stunt to raise money for the hospital.

[Pauline43]

Hi Grendall

Sorry for the late reply. I have been a PV patient at the Royal Hallamshire hospital for over 8 years. I had face to face appointments with Dr Francis and other doctors for the first 4 years and was then asked if I would be happy to move to a nurse led clinic as my bloods had been stable for quite a while. These were face to face with the nurse until covid. I then had 3 monthly telephone consultations with the same nurse. When an alteration was noted in my blood results I was immediately put on to a slightly higher hydroxycarbamide dose. When I had to have surgery the haematologist worked with the orthopaedic team. I have been having extreme fatigue and the nurse has been in contact with my gp, organised extra blood tests and has reduced the timing of my appointment to 8 weeks. She has ordered scans of my spleen if there is a possible problem.

I hope this makes you more confident about coming to Sheffield!

[Grendall in reply to Pauline43]

thank you for taking 5he time to reply.

I take Peg injections and was given a supply but even though Leeds asked for my new appointment for 4 weeks after I got my appointment (face to face) through for August! In itself it is not the end of the world and I appreciate that they are busy but I only have 8weeks of injections left. Anyway rang them to inform and initially they were trying to fob me off saying as it was a new referral nothing they could do and contact Leeds (obviously I can’t as the transfer has gone through) a bit of persistence on my part stating I obviously can’t just run out of my meds for 3 months, further Jo the chain to Dr Francis and I got a call back with a cancellation at the end of May so fingers crossed 🤞 on teething problems x