"Totally forgotten about"

My wife attended Monklands Emergency Department on four separate occasions over an eight day period, each time with worsening symptoms and increasing pain. Each visit, she was seen and examined by a doctor and told to come back if the symptoms worsened, each time the symptoms bringing her back were becoming more urgent and indicating something was going seriously wrong with her back. At the first visit, she was told she needed an MRI as an outpatient, likewise the second visit, the third visit was then an urgent MRI within 2 weeks and finally the fourth visit where medical staff sought advice from the neurosurgeons at the Southern General, with a view to transferring her care to them, but only after an MRI was carried out. Being a Sunday there was no MRI at Monklands, so the consultant in charge that day, informed us via a junior colleague that they would be “taking over her care”, would speak directly to the radiologist the following day to get the MRI done promptly and would call her directly to let her know the time to attend. 

Nobody called my wife, nor me, at any point since leaving Monklands. When my wife rang radiology to ask if there had been an MRI booked, she was told it was booked for two weeks time but that there had been no escalation request made.

I am deeply disappointed and very frustrated that if a doctor at consultant level makes a plan, makes assurances that they will take over the care of my wife and escalate an MRI then I expect a follow through on that assurance. I appreciate that Emergency Departments are by very definition very busy places, however no consultant should ever make such assurances if they cannot be upheld. A two minute phone call to at least reassure my wife she has not been forgotten about was all that, at the very least, was required to allay her increasing anxiety and fear that the next time she is forced to attend she may not actually be able to walk.