TiddlyPom

So it's Monday in the ongoing saga of 'How to get an appt'...

Friday I rang and left three messages with the patient liaison person at different times during the day- the last one explaining how seriously unhappy I was and that if I didn't hear from her on Monday, I would be going to the Minister.

It's now 10.26 in the morning on Monday and she has until some time today to call me back.

Swerv-o

If it's any consolation (which it probably isn't) it's not just you - The chap I work with has managed to de-laminate his shoulder bone from its cartilage, and he just keeps getting shipped around from specialist to specialist, and of course each new specialist keeps re-starting the investigations. So far he's laid out over $1200 and a year of trailing around and hasn't had a jot of treatment yet. The new specialist now wants him to go for another MRI scan next week.

He also echoes your complaints of the specialists' support staff [read receptionists] - they seem to act like gatekeepers to the hidden treasure and woe betide anybody who actually thinks that they have any sort of right to see the specialist.

So he's currently looking at flights to Cuba to see if he can go and get it sorted out all in one go.

Hopefully you will hear something more positive today.


S

ukecadet

Now I'm interested in this but can you just sum it up for me in a few words.Is the problem that you have to wait until the 14th or that you're having to pay private.Best of luck with your recovery by the way.

TiddlyPom

FFS! Ridiculous. That sounds horrible.... poor guy!

My leg... it's just a broken fibula. It's not freaking rocket science.
The receptionist told me that the private ortho would need to asses my break and then he'd send me back to the public system if he thought it was straightforward.

And yet, in ED I was X-rayed and seen by the on call Ortho who knew whether my break was straightforward or not...
So I have to go and waste $200 just to be told I'm ok to be seen by my local hospital.

It's ridiculous.

I have a friend who had an entire ankle reconstruction there and they're saying I have to be seen privately first? I think not.

moneypenny20

I'm sure it would be quicker, cheaper and easier to fly back up to Port Macquarie hospital for them to sort it.

TiddlyPom

Because I did it 'out of area' then Nepean hospital won't accept me as a patient and they're forcing me to go private.
I'm not working because of the accident. I have three children, with an ex husband who thinks nothing of not paying child support for months at a time....

I'm not being forced to go private. Just not.

TiddlyPom

Both my hub and I have said exactly that.

FFS!

ukecadet

Ok I'm with it now.They're forcing you to go private.Ta

TiddlyPom

Except, everyone has a right to free health care. I have a choice.
They're removing the choice because of some bolshy receptionist who won't accept me.

11.24 and no call.

SillyOldBag

I think a ministerial complaint and/or involving local media is the way to go. I know of 2 people up here who have had long standing disputes with the hospital system sorted within minutes of a camera crew arriving outside the hospital. If you have a good local radio station "talkback" type programme it might be worth contacting them too, my OH is a devil for phoning them when he wants something done

Good luck with it all - it quite beggars belief what you have been going through!

TiddlyPom

Finally she's rung.

Apparently she wasn't in on Friday so couldn't return my call, though her staff told me she was in and when I rang after 4pm, they told me she had gone home. Who's telling the truth?

If she's a patient liaison person, then god help us. She has absolutely no ability to accept anyone else's story other than what she believes.

She's telling me that because the Ortho guy I saw in ED has referred me to the private ortho because my break is 'of concern to him' and that it's not straightforward.
She also said that I seemed happy to have a referral when she last spoke to me.

I said I was happy until I rang the number to find out I'd been referred to a private specialist which was going to charge me $$$ just to get in the front door. I thought that referral was for the fracture clinic!!!

She wouldn't accept that, kept going on and on about how I said I was happy about it. It was like arguing with a brick wall.

After ten minutes of arguing on the telephone, she tells me she's going to investigate to see whether she can get me an appt at the fracture clinic. There are no specialists there... hence me needing to see one.... so she says.

I accept there are no specialists at the fracture clinic... so what the heck does anyone do if they've broken their leg in the local area and need a specialist? Yes, they get seen IN THE HOSPITAL.

SO get me seen in the hospital. How is that difficult?

I am also highly doubtful I DO need a specialist. This is a broken fibula with two stabilising screws across the two bones. There's no problem with the break, it's healing well, there's no infection, there's no complication.

Having had a friend who had an entire ankle reconstructed there, I cannot see how taking two screws out of an ankle requires me to have a specialist consultant.... can someone explain that to me please?

I'm about to ring a larger hospital further into Sydney.

TiddlyPom

And I've rung the bigger hospital to enquire how it would work....

She says 'It's not gonna happen, I'm afraid'....


She says 'We don't take referrals from any other hospital'...

She says I'd have to go private anyway.

She says I'd have to go back up to Port Macquarie Base hospital to get it treated as their surgeons don't like operating on people who've already been operated on by other surgeons. This is fine - I accept that's the case with that hospital but wtf do people do if they break their leg elsewhere?

TiddlyPom

I'm now on the phone to my gp who cannot understand why I can't be given an appt. All this 'out of area' stuff she says is surreal because I live in THIS area and should be given an appt in this area.

TiddlyPom

BWHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH!

I won.... (for now)

The charming liaison person rang me back telling me I have an appt to go to the fracture clinic at my local hospital next Monday week.

I am to leave my plaster on until then (it's meant to be off this Fri, but that's ok). She told me to 'bear in mind that there are no specialists at the clinic, only registrars.'

I suspect from what she says, that I will have another yet another battle to have these screws taken out on the public system, but this is a start, for now.
But this gets my foot in the door, so to speak.

God damn! What a battle this is! WTH do people do if they injure themselves on holiday?

Swerv-o

Well done you!


S