Appointments, or lack of them!

[gazelleLOL]

My doctor recently wrote to my consultant explaining to her that

my shoulders and knee pain needed addressing.

An appointment was given to me for this Friday.

Lo and behold a letter arrived yesterday advising me the appointment

has been re scheduled for later in August! bad enough but then enclosed

was another letter, this one told me the August appointment had been

put back to October!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So far I have been unable to get an explanation.

If I miss an appointment, rare, they send a warning letter, it makes me sick (

[aligator]

Hi Gazelle, Can quite understand how angry you are, I had a lot of issues getting my first appointment with my rheumatologist so I went eventually to PALS who heard my complaint & organised my appointment. They work without judgement so it might be worth a try.

Good luck!

Love Alison x

[sylvi]

As Alison has said try using pals,they are very good. I was lucky last week,i rang my rheumy nurse in pain and she got me in wednesday too see her and consultant. Ended up with a jab of steroids. Rang her yesterday to say i had had a blood test and that i was still in a lot of pain. Got the results of the blood test that showed my inflamation markers were up again. So i ended up with extra steroids to take. Only hope this works. I will be getting another blood test done next week.

I hope after complaining to pals you get some much needed help.

Love Sylvi.xx

[sciqueen]

Hi

I am not sure what pals is, but you should have a helpline number, cannot you ring them. Usually they are unmanned, but if you ring early in the morning a rheumy nurse will ring back in the afternoon. They can give out appts and if necessary consult with rheumy consultant to get you help sooner, rather than waiting for the appt in October if you are so bad now.

It sounds similar to what Sylvi says above, so we may be talking about the same service??

Hope that helps

Sci x

[Hidden]

It could be that the rheumatologist is off sick? not that they would tell you this x

[SusanP]

i have this all the time,.....i make appointments for when they say and fit them in to having the car and trying to keep work happy..then ..letter and all change....its soo bad when you are banking on the appoint to help you stop struggling.....complain ..its your only hope...... x

[Beth58]

Hi

It's always difficult when our consultants are so hard pressed, it appears since the changes within DWP, doctors/consultants are overloaded with people requesting appointments or letters of support and because of this patients in desperate need because of the pain are being pushed back all the time.

I agree with all that's been about the PALS team but I'd ring the consultants secretary and tell her your situation and how the appointments keep getting put back and you cannot wait until Oct to see consultant.

Also, why on earth isn't your GP treating the pain until you see your Rheumy. With shared care my GP's have always administered all my pain relief apart from the steroid injections.

I really think if your in any pain whether mild, moderate or severe you should go back to your GP and ask for pain relief. It took some time but my GP's are really on board with shared care and manage me and my various conditions really well these days, it helps me enormously with coping and I know I just need to pick up the phone and a doctor will ring me back.

Good luck, hope you get an earlier appointment.

Beth xx