What is NOT happening today

In January, Hubby was sent a hospital appointment but with other things going on at the time, he decided to reschedule and they gave him the 11th February instead. We drove up to the hospital last month to get his preparation pack and for him to be assessed, armed with his list of meds as requested. No problem.
At the beginning of February, he received a letter to say his appointment had been changed to Sunday 10th (ie. today), so his ‘preparation’ had to be brought forward a day, nothing to eat after breakfast Saturday, first litre of gunge taken over two hours from 5 to 7, second litre from 9 to 11. Nothing but clear liquid or water to drink otherwise.
He had to be at the hospital for 8.30, so it meant an early start.
We had a plan but whilst reading the instructions, he noticed the small print about certain meds, so even though he had told the assessment nurse and she had written it down, he phoned the hospital.

Oh. My. God.
I could practically hear the motors running as he was hovering off the ground in anger and frustration. I counted five people he was put through to, and at the end, they said they would call him back. This took over two hours.

As he’s on warfarin, it would appear he should have been told to arrange an INR blood test at least two days before the procedure as it had to be around 2. He is 3.9 and stable, just where he should be, so would have to be put on an alternative, the dreaded jabs in the tummy.

They phoned him back, and he spoke to two other people, where it was left that if the procedure was to be cancelled, they would call him back.
Guess what?

Yeah, so it all starts again. If it wasn’t for the fact he is still having problems with kidney stones, he’d say forget it.
The rub is he has to see his GP for a referral for problems with his throat, and getting an appointment is like hens teeth. He rang the surgery and was told there were two places left in the sit and wait, but he couldn’t ‘reserve’ one. He was at the surgery in less than 15 minutes to be told there were none left and to ring 111 or go to A&E (been there, done that, needs to see GP for referral, deja vu anyone???).
So he sent an email, listing his hospital appointments. Three days later he gets a phone call asking why he’d sent an email when he could have come up to the surgery. He needs concrete shoes to keep him on the ground now. Eventually, he was given an appointment for the morning of his overnighter and pointed out why he couldn’t attend. This is then amended to Monday 18th, and is with a GP who is, for want of a better word, lacking. The last time he was successful in getting a sit and wait appointment, he was put under this GP and she cancelled his appointment as a No Show, despite him sitting outside her office for over two hours. Five other people went to reception in protest as the doctor had cancelled their appointments too for the same reason.

We had hoped to change surgeries, but it would appear that the closest is already over subscribed and new patients are being referred to ours. Good luck with that.

Note:
Should have mentioned it was just as well as we didn’t wake up until gone 7, so getting to the hospital for 8.30 would have been pushing it.

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