I’M sure that you are familiar with the old nursery rhyme that begins: ‘For want of a nail the shoe was lost’, and goes on: ‘For want of a shoe the horse was lost; for want of a horse the rider was lost etc. etc. until, eventually, the kingdom was lost. ‘And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.’
I am reminded of this when thinking about my recent problems with the NHS. In January this year, I was admitted to the Bath Royal United Hospital with internal bleeding caused by a fall and aggravated by an anticoagulant I had been prescribed, Warfarin. I was taken off Warfarin, initially for two months, and after that time had expired, a doctor from the practice in Melksham referred me back to the Cardiology Department at the RUH, suggesting that, because I was at risk of having a stroke, I should be prescribed an alternative anticoagulant.
On Friday, April 21, I had an appointment with a consultant at the RUH who agreed with my doctor that I am in danger of suffering a stroke, and he recommended that I start taking an alternative anticoagulant. He told me that he would write to the surgery in Melksham with his recommendations.
It was Monday, May 8, over two weeks later, before I finally received the medication he recommended.
In the meantime a secretary and two different doctors from the Melksham GP surgery had chased up the Cardiology Department at the RUH to find out what was causing the delay! I was told that the consultant has actually written the letter but, because he failed to mark it as ‘urgent’ the administrative staff at the RUH failed to action it.
All that was required of them was to type the consultant’s letter and send it through, presumably electronically, to the Melksham surgery. In my view, having been contacted by two Melksham GPs and a secretary you would have thought that they might have taken the hint, but in any case, any excuse based on a missing ‘urgent’ stamp no longer holds water.
How can a multi-billion pound organization like the NHS be brought to a halt, and a patient left waiting for his medication, by something as mundane as typing a simple single page letter? I am of course aware of the problems with waiting times for operations and pressure on A&E departments, but, taking two weeks to send the GP confirmation of the consultant’s findings? Why? Has the concept of ‘waiting times’ seeped into NHS culture to the point where everything, however trivial, has to have a certain waiting time attached?
As far as I can see, both the consultant and the staff at the Melksham surgery have done everything that could be expected of them, but the administrative system at the RUH leaves much to be desired.
While they dragged their heels, the poor old patient, yours truly, was left in limbo and still susceptible to suffering from a stroke.
For want of an ‘urgent’ stamp the letter was lost; for want of a letter the prescription was lost; for want of a prescription the medication was lost; for want of medication? I would prefer not to dwell on that.
John Doyle
Melksham