I have just rang the hospital to ask who I will be seeing on Thursday. This is my second endo appointment,the last one was six months ago. On that occasion I saw the registrar,and I din't get on with him. So this time I wanted to see the man himself. So I ring and ask who I am seeing,to be told it is a registrar,but not the same one as the endo only has them for a year,as part of their training. So why can't I see the endo? Oh he doesn't do that clinic on a Thursday,if you want to see him we can make an appointment for you but it won't be on a Thursday. I never asked for a Thursday!!
Is it me?am I/we being fobbed off?
Written by
beaton
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Yes and you mustn't stand for it - cancel that appt and make one to see the top man. I threw a right temper tantrum the last time I was at my clinic because they stuck me with a "trainee" who didn't know her thyroid from her elbow (I told her this as well) so in future I aim only to see the top guy.
Thanks Moggie,yes I think it was your rant that sparked me to ring. I shall keep this appointment but will have a nice little word with the receptionist.x
The hospitals where i get sent to always state on the appointment letter such and such a dr or a member of his or her team they make no promises but if you are really unhappy with the dr you saw and willing to wait you can see the main dr thr same day i know my friend certainly did that once it is a bit stupid though if the main endo and the person you want to see isnt actually involved in the clinic you are going to if he is the lead endo
Hi MCoates,I shall keep this appointment as I do need to see someone but if it doesn't go well I shall kick up. I shall have a word with reception about my next visit. Honestly they think we are idiots,the first time I was told the endo (named on my letter.) was on holiday!! I do think your first appointment should be with a consultant. In fact while I have been writing this,I feel a letter to the named man coming on.
I don't really think the receptionists think we are idiots, but there are far too many patients for one person ( the actual consultant who naturally everyone wants to see) to deal with so someone else obviously has to see the rest, that means someone has to see the registrar or senior house officer or whatever their title is.
Some of them are good some not so good. I have been seen by one registrar who was absolutely excellent but the first one I ever saw had no real people skills and I came away feeling very down indeed.
Then, if you hospital is a teaching hospital or even if it isn't, new endos have to train somewhere otherwise eventually we would run out of endos.
I am due to go back to hospital this week and am a bit apprehensive about who I will see, I don't mind not seeing my consultant if I am happy with the substitute.
Maybe I am being overoptimistic but I am assuming that there will have been some sort of team discussion of your case notes and that they will have looked at blood test results etc in advance so that by the time you are seen, a decision about your treatment will have been made in conjunction with your consultant.
Time will tell, I might be back on here again in the depths of depression by Thursday.
Last year when I mentioned that I wasn't keen on the guy I had seen the more experienced thyroid patient I was telling and who attends the same hospital as I do said 'Don't worry about that, you'll never see him again!' So far she has been correct.
Hi LizH, I think if you have been referred to see a named endo you should at least see them on the first occasion. You are being referred because you are ill with something you may not know much about,you need help to understand your illness and to be able to ask questions.
I have no angst with either receptionists or registrars but I do think you should be told who you are seeing and what their qualifications are.
As it was a winding down the treatment - now that was a surprise because the first guy I saw said I would be with them for two years - when I expressed surprise that I was finishing treatment right there and then and said I had been told I would be with them for two years, she said 'who said that?' and flipped to the beginning of my case notes to see who I had seen.
I know he said that because he talked about titration and B&R and how they used the fast method and I can remember thinking ' if two years is the fast method how long does the slow method take?'
I would just have liked to relate to the person I saw, kind of leaves you feeling good if you do doesn't it. It isn't satisfying to realise that even though someone has apologised for the hour and a half wait and that didn't really bother because the people in front of you might be needing more time and I don't grudge that for a minute, it was just that I realised that when she asked how I was feeling she really don't want to know - there was I thinking she actually cared - and no matter what I had said my treatment had obviously been decided. How foolish and naive of me!
I did notice a box on the form I handed to the receptionist for my next appointment - there were three options to choose from C / initials that I think stood for senior registrar and / Nurse. I had the middle one circled for next time!!!
So it looks as if the decision on who you see at your following appointment is made by the person you see that day and isn't random as I thought.
Ah well, we will just have to keep struggling on won't we
Hi Liz,I think I must have seen the same "person" you did. Honestly like you I don't mind waiting but not to get even an acknowledgement of the fact,well. She had made up her mind about me and my treatment before I went in,all my symptoms were nothing to do with thyroid. At 5 o'clock a buzzer rang and she packed up her papers,handed me the paper to give to reception but I told her,they had gone home before I even went in to see her.
Have rang to see the a consultant but no clinic or secretary's work Fridays!!xx
Beaton, That is just awful, at least my person apologised for running late. Mind you they always do there - clearly hospital policy!
It isn't as if they are wasting time though, you know they are in their little rooms all that time without even a cup of coffee so they are definitely beavering away.
What got me is the fact their mind is made up before they even see you. Honestly they could have sent me a letter - it would have been just as satisfying an experience - maybe even more so.
Your experience was definitely worse than mine.
Don't know how you kept your cool when she just packed up when the buzzer went. That is just amazing. Although you were probably so stunned by it that you couldn't speak.
i just wish that when she said my tiredness was nothing to do with my thyroid I had said 'Oh and what do you think is causing it.'
Sadly I was so surprised at hearing tiredness was nothing to do with the thyroid that I didn't think of that until last night.
I can't remember if you are hypo or hyper. When do you have to go back?
I know it is probably pathetic but I just find it hard to get that sort of experience out of my mind and move on.
Same here - I always think of what to say when I'm mulling it over at home. Still hard to imagine someone packing up just like that, I was telling a friend I have just had coffee with, she was amazed and said she wished she had a job like that.
I agree, though these days in most hospitals you are almost guaranteed not to see the consultant you are expecting to see. Like you say your first visit ought to be with the senior person if at all possible, by the time I got to see the guy I saw I had read so many books and seen so much on here he didn't tell me anything I didn't know already.
Hi I had loads of problems with my endos ( plural) over 2 years. In the end I had to get stroppy and did get an apology from the top man who stated that the receptionists were all to blame.......
Anyhow do demand good service and complain if you have to. Good luck.
At a time of illness the last thing you need is to have to deal with lazy endos but sometimes we all have to demand to be treated properly. All the best
I blame it on young endos who lack experience and maybe even subject knowledge, don't seem to me to be in a position to make any decisions for themselves - they have obviously been told at a meeting somewhere along the line what to say and do with each person on their list and on top of all that some of them just can't empathise with their patients.
Not sure it is because they are lazy, I just feel they are towing the establishment line.
Kind of like where one doctor in a group practise is willing to prescribe something that might help us then backtracks after the senior partner 'sorts them out'
Once they add those ridiculous blood test ranges that you can fit into no matter how ill you are feeling, patients haven't got a leg to stand on - and to think my other half says I am cynical.
Oh I call it lazy if someone cannot be bothered to read your notes or answer any questions and I call it unprofessional when endos do not explain the condition you are seeing them for and if they do not try to understand the illness and associated problems that come with it. But thats just me.
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