dodont | (no subject)

Gah. I am trying to write a script for calling up the orthopaedic appointments person so that I sound angry enough for them to arrange an emergency appointment, and it just sounds rubbish. Anyone have any suggestions? I might just wing it ..

They're not fucking picking up anyway. I'll try again later.

Oh, and the cherry is that I'm in a fucking shitload of pain today. Maybe it's stress. But yeah I can barely walk a few steps, so whoopdidoo.

My mother said she was telling my grandfather how proud she is that I've managed to keep it together. I'm not sure what she means by that, because what the hell else would I do? I can't afford to fall apart, nobody will pick up the pieces. I might as well totally squash myself. It's either this or taking all my pills at once, and refusing to acknowledge reality is an effective way to distract oneself from that particular concept.

Etc.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Demand the next available appointment. Is the referral with orthopaedics or with physiotherapy? Contact whichever actually gave you the appointment. You should be squeezed in if your appointment is cancelled. Putting you onto the end of the list again is totally unacceptable. If this doesn't happen, complain to your GP. Change GPs immediately if they won't follow it up.

This is clearly an example of inserting a bottleneck into the patient care pathway ("patient care pathway" is the technical name for "you have to see X before you can have a Y"), and its sole purpose is to keep the surgeon's waiting lists short.

Make sure they know you know this, and make sure that they know you will raise hell about it.

Tell them that if they don't give you a new confirmed appointment over the phone then you'll report them to <insert NHS patients' groups here> for manipulating their waiting list lengths.

Or maybe offer to slip them 50 roubles.

If you want, get someone else to ring up? I could do it if you don't want to? x

Good luck.