"Gynaecology lack of communication"

Having been put on the waiting list for a Laparoscopy and Hysteroscopy in mid-January this year and told it was a 3month waiting list, I decided this week to phone my consultants secretary to get an update on where I was on the waiting list and how much longer I would likely have to wait. I have put everything on hold at the moment from booking any holidays or planning any events due to the daily pain I have been experiencing and having to regularly go to my GP to help me with my pain and emotional stress this has been causing me.

I was astounded to be told that my consultant had just left and that I have yet to be reassigned to another consultant. The complete lack of communication on this has left me bewildered to the fact that they had not informed me that my consultant was leaving or had left, and that surely they would have had plenty of notice from them that they were intending to leave. Having asked if I would be moved to another consultant and informed of this I was simply told I should be but don’t know if that will happen or when that will happen. Has there been no forward planning for a consultant leaving and who is taking on the responsibility of their patients.

As I said at the beginning my main reason for phoning his secretary was to find out where I was on the waiting list and how much longer I was likely to wait and the length of the waiting list. The secretary was unable to answer these questions simply saying that no one has taken on their list but it is still being managed. How can a list be managed if there isn’t a consultant assigned to the patients on the list?

This complete lack of communication has left me in a position of not knowing when or who will be carrying out my operation. At the very least I want to know this, but also will I have the chance to meet the person who has taken over my case before my operation? This whole experience has left me even more stressed and unable to plan ahead anything to do with my life or work.