"My partner's prostate cancer journey"

In 2017 we had an indication that my partner's brother had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. We got my partner an appointment at his GP practice in early 2018. The service received by the GP was excellent, very quick and very efficient. (Guide Bridge Medical Practice). He had his blood taken, the results showed a high PSA, he had an appointment for an MRI scan and also got his appointment to see a consultant in Urology at Tameside Hospital within 5 days. He then needed a biopsy taking of his prostate to grade the cancer. His first appointment was cancelled at the last minute on the morning of the biopsy. The second appointment took a lot to get due to administrative errors within the booking office. When we finally got the biopsy date a few weeks later, we attended, the service by the staff during the biopsy was brilliant, they were very caring and attentive.

The biopsies were damaged in testing, so we didn't get a full picture. The next step was to book a date for surgery. This was a nightmare as they didn't have a full staff at Stepping Hill, so he didn't get his surgery until mid April.The surgery took longer than expected, no explanations other than it was difficult to remove the prostate. He also had to have a transfusion. The next day he was discharged with a catheter in situ. I was shown how to give him the anticoagulant injections. We walked down the corridor to go to the car park and his catheter started leaking. No mention of this problem had been mentioned. We had no discharge papers, only a catheter passport. Fortunately with me working at Tameside hospital I had a few people I could call for advice and help, which is what I did. Stepping Hill were not very happy about this and were quite rude to my colleagues. 

The post op appointment should have been 6 weeks post surgery. It didn't happen until nearly 12 weeks. Due once again to administrative errors. After attending one appointment at Stepping Hill outpatients, I asked for my partner to be transferred back to the care of Tameside. He has had one more appointment since then. He was due for another at the one year mark. But this was put forward to May 2019 due to the mess up with the post surgical appointment error. We were waiting for an appointment in Mid May 2019, none arrived. We call up Tameside only to find out he's not been put in the system for appointment reminders in May, he now can't be seen until July. In this day and age of technology, you'd think they could get a simple appointment right? Wrong!

During this past twelve months, there has been no support offered to me. I would have thought that family of people with cancer would get this. But it wasn't offered.