"Care following a medial meniscal tear"

I tore a meniscal cartilage in my knee while gardening and the pain was so intense that my partner took me to A&E early the next morning. After a few hours, I was seen by a nurse practitioner who told me it was probably a torn ligament and I should let it rest a few days.

A few days later it was still bothering me so I rang my GP surgery and spoke to my GP who thought it might be a torn cartilage so booked me a physio appointment for a month later. The physio manipulated my knee and thought it was either osteoporosis or arthritis or a damaged patella. He said he couldn’t advise me on what to do as he didn’t know what it was but booked me an X-ray for a month later.

A few days later, I had a flare up of pain and again visited A&E, who had my X-ray results, gave me a knee support to use and advised me to visit my surgery. I made an appointment a few days later and saw a very unsympathetic doctor who told me I shouldn’t have gone to A&E as it wasn’t an emergency and when I said I was finding it very difficult not being able to work, they told me that I should have health insurance.

Two weeks after the X-ray, I still hadn’t received my results at the surgery so contacted the unit who promptly sent the results out. A couple of days later, I phoned the surgery to get the results and the member of staff I spoke to told me that the doctor didn’t need to see me but offered physio. I phoned back and asked to speak to the doctor who offered me cortisone injections as my knee was still not right. I told the doctor that I would like to know what the problem was as the x-Ray didn’t show, what I suspected, was a meniscal tear so I would book a private MRI scan. I had this a few weeks later and this did indeed show a meniscal tear and maltracking of the patella.

Once the results for this came through to the surgery, I was offered a referral to the orthopaedic team and also an appointment with the local surgery physio. At this appointment, I was told that I shouldn’t be working, but they didn’t look at my knee and only gave me exercises to do once I’d requested them. However, they also offered to refer me to the orthopaedic team and, consequently, I received an appointment with the nearest hospital physio.

When I turned up for this appointment, after waiting for a while, I was ushered into what had previously been a ward and the physio pulled a curtain for a bit of privacy from another client who came in for consultation with another physio there. I could, very clearly, hear everything that was being discussed with the other client which made me not only very uncomfortable about anything I said but I also felt quite uncomfortable for the other client’s privacy and confidentiality. I think it also impacted on the accuracy of the notes taken by the physio with my consultation as the summary of history sent to me had a few inaccuracies in the recording.  

In summary, I feel disappointed with the care and speed of response given by my GP surgery and the local orthopaedic team. Furthermore, it appears that paying privately for a MRI scan brought a better response. Not being able to work and not having health insurance has impacted not just my financial situation but also my mental health with the stress. However, I’m at last having regular physio with an NHS physiotherapist.