"Really pleasant phone call.."

Today I rang the cardiac surgery waiting list and can I say what a lovely and helpful person. I rang to ask about when I could potentially expect my surgery her response was quick, clear and very informative in respect to explaining what would happen next. In the respect that I could expect a call in a weeks time to offer a date should no further cancellations take place. Can I stress as someone who really does not like nagging/ phoning as my learning and mental health difficulties can make the experience very difficult this person really did make the overall experience very positive.

However during the conversation I was concerned by some of the by some of the wording she used. At one point she said that the 18 week referral target does not apply to patients receiving congenital cardiac surgery. This is complete nonsense the 18 week referral time applies to everyone until the government choose to scrap it- the complexity cause only applies to period before diagnosis. I understand that the trust only run a list every two weeks, due to being done by visiting surgeons, that is obviously subject to cancellations due to emergencies and lack of ITU beds. With typical measures such as outsourcing not choice due to the specialty I understand perfectly the reasons for difficulty implementing and meeting the standard- but that does not mean the standard does not apply. It was her lack of respect that this is basic right afforded to patients by the NHS constitution and claiming it did not apply that was the problem- not the difficulty meeting it. Why should this group be subjected to a different standard if at all avoidable?

She also seemed totally unaware that NHS England define a reasonable offer of an admission date as written letter three or more weeks before admission date not the phone call less than two weeks in advance. This probably annoyed me more than the remark about the 18 week target time (even if they actively used it I would have chosen to relinquish my right to treatment in 18 weeks anyway to finish the university year). This annoyed me rather more due to the nature of my learning difficulties.

However as I said she was lovely person who I imagine has to put up with some rather impatient customers. The way she spoke to give me the information about what would happen next was very clear and helpful. The whole conversation was extremely polite. It was just her lack of awareness of the basic rights of patients and trust policies on access to treatment that was striking- unless a representative of UHB could kindly point out a policy or policy sub-clause that explicitly makes Adult Congenital Heart Patients exempt from timely treatment? (The clause in the 18 UHB Policy only refers to the period up to diagnosis- see below. Patients are generally added to this waiting list after accurate diagnosis is achieved). I must reiterate this is not a complaint about how long I have waited as that was my choice. Nor is it a complaint about the trusts difficulty meeting targets as the reasons for these are well understood and accepted. It is a question is why I was categorically told the targets do not apply to this whole group of patients.

"9. 2 Clinical Complexity

Cases where a number of diagnostic tests could not be performed within 18 weeks for medical reasons or a diagnosis has been difficult to reach are deemed to be clinically complex and can be excluded. Guidance should be sought from the operational performance team if there is any doubt about applying such an exclusion. "