"Offhand and arrogant"

Completed for a friend for whom i provede care and support who is presently exhausted and in great pain . . . You would think that a person with severe mobility problems and in pain would be scanned in their nearest hospital.

No, the best part of a day struggling to get from the other side of Coventry, past Walsgrave to an obscure corner of Rugby and all this on a bank Holiday with disrupted public transport.

Then, when tired and confused, papers were left behind a call was made intending to ask him to return to collect!!

Trying to return the call we found that the number reported by the caller did not exist (hey! now public services are discouraged from playing secret squirrel by cloaking their number they just programme in a non-existent one instead).

A call to the Universities Hospitals switchboard got an irritated and dismissive reply saying that the department was not working.

Having assured the switchboard that it was I was put on a line that rang out until it dropped from exhaustion . . . Clearly Walsgrave switchboard is incapable of finding the right extension.

So, called Rugby direct and was put through by another person who asked why i had not called the main switchboard at Walsgrave - Duh!

At the unit I was appraised of the reason for the call.

Clearly no-one had considered the patient and his mobility problem.

I suggested a stamp and an envelope and the post.

Then asked what if it was lost . . .

Explained that that was less likely than the patient losing it given his condition and possibility of collapse on the journeys!

Eventually the point was grasped.

It seems to me that this is a big, impersonal, uncaring machine that is focussed on its own admin and concerns and patients are almost an irritation.

This is not the first time I've been appalled by Coventry Universities Hospital Trust just that I've found this review process.

It would be nice to think that someone actually reads and takes notice and, better still, get a grip . . .