"Outsourcing of hospital services"

I have been prescribed a 2 year course of teriparatide, and at the start of the treatment plan I originally attended the Nightingale Hospital in February 2023 and was talked through the process with a very helpful rheumatology nurse.

Teriparatide is medication that you have to inject and needs to be kept in a fridge. All this was explained to me and I (naively, it turns out) imagined that I would leave with the necessary kit and possibly a pharmacy prescription for the medication.

However, it took 3 more months for my treatment to actually begin because the delivery of it had been outsourced to HealthNet.

So this is the time line:

- At the end of February, RDE has to contact Healthnet to tell them to contact me to start the process.

- 3 weeks later, Healthnet make their initial contact by text

- They want me to contact them via a link on my phone, and confirm my postcode and date of birth. I am one of those people who are not keen on parting with that sort of information to unknown data banks, but I didn’t seem to have any other choice

- After a few days I have to call and arrange a time with them to deliver the kit: medication, sharps bin and needles. I had to designate a day when I will definitely be at home the entire time, because the medication needs to go straight in the fridge when delivered.

- Another 3 days later, Text from Healthnet for me to phone them to arrange a time for a nurse to visit me. This is another full day appointment.

- Two days after that I received the medication and sharps bin from Healthnet

- After another 3 weeks was the Date of the appointment for Healthnet Homecare nurse to visit - another all day appointment. However, before setting off from a previous home visit, the nurse rang to make sure that I had all the kit. When I checked, it turned out that I didn’t have the needles. The nurse said there was no point visiting on that day.

- As I had heard nothing from Healthnet after a few days about arranging a new date for their nurse to visit, I called them. It took a little time for the person who answered to understand what I was asking, but we got there in the end and arranged a new date

- Two weeks later I received a text from Healthnet to arrange a time for them to deliver my next batch of medication. Called Healthnet to explain that I hadn’t actually started on the first batch, so sending a new supply might be a little premature.

It took a while for person who answered to understand the problem, but eventually we got there and they (hopefully) updated their system to the new start date for the nurse to come and treatment began.

How did I feel?

I felt pretty pissed off by the whole performance and wondering why on earth my treatment couldn’t have started back in February when I first saw the nurse in the rheumatology department of RD&E.

Apart from all the inconvenience involved, it all seems like the most amazing waste, and I can’t help wondering why outsourcing is seen as a good use of NHS resources.