"months to wait for urgent care"

I was in my late seventies when, in Sheffield, on Boxing Day, 2024, I became ill and was taken by ambulance to North Sheffield Hospital where I was diagnosed as having Angina and probably needed to have a stent inserted.

As instructed by Sheffield Hospital, as soon as I was back in Enniskillen, I attended my GP, and through him the cardiac unit in the South Western Acute Hospital where the original diagnosis was confirmed.  All of  this was first class.

Subsequently I received a letter from Altnagelvin Hospital giving a date for an "urgent procedure": six weeks into the future! On the Sunday afternoon before the Monday when I was to have the "urgent procedure" Altnagelvin Hospital rang me to cancel it.

One might reasonably think that Altnagelvin should have given me a new date a.s.a.p. No.  I was given a new date a further six weeks into the future.

And it  was cancelled! It was now nearly four months since the initial diagnosis and nothing had been done.

Consequently, I was in the South West Acute Hospital taking up a bed for two weeks; this should not have been the case. During the first week I was to go to Altnagevlin Hospital on the Wednesday.  This was cancelled as a suitable ambulance was not available. I went by ambulance to Altnagelvin Hospital on the Friday and even though I was up there early from Enniskillen I wasn't taken until the afternoon when what turned out to be an exploratory operation was performed.  The necessary stent was not inserted.

Back to the SWAH for a further week until I was taken to Altnagelvin Hospital by ambulance early on the following Friday. After several hours in the cardiac ward a doctor came in to see me with some sort of questionnaire.  It became clear that the doctor did not know that I was there to have a stent inserted! I asked the doctor to find out what was happening.  The doctor did not return. About lunchtime I asked one of the nurses if she could find out what was happening.  Another nurse arrived to chastise me for asking the question, and told me that I would just have to wait and that I might or might not be seen to that day.  Horrible!

Interestingly, about mid-afternoon the surgeon himself came to me in the ward for me to sign the consent form: I should at least thank him for getting the job done at last. My wife, herself in her seventies, came up from Enniskillen by car to take me home.  It took about five hours to organize my medicines and find a doctor to sign me out, and we left after midnight.

That was my experience.

What was good?

My GP, and the nurses and staff of the South Western Acute Hospital.

The ambulance men and women in England and Northern Ireland: all obviously well-selected and well-trained. At the end, in Altnagevlin Hospital, a good nurse, probably on the night shift, and a good young Scottish lady doctor.

What was bad?

The working relationship between the South West Acute Hospital and Altnagevlin Hospital which allowed months to pass before the "urgent" care needed was provided.