"Poor communication has let me down"

It saddens me to write this poor review but time and time again the MRI has let me down because of poor communication leading to avoidable administrative errors.

Two years ago I was called for a cadaver kidney transplant. I was admitted following 9 years on dialysis, apprehensive and excited to at last be receiving a kidney. Sadly, it was not to be as my most recent echocardiogram hadn’t been reviewed and I should not have been reactivated.  I had already queried the reactivation with the transplant nurse. This was investigated by PALS and measures put in place to prevent this happening again..

Last year following major heart surgery I unfortunately remained in atrial fibrillation and awaited months to be admitted for a cardioversion. In October last year I received a call from the cardiac surgery nurse specialist informing me that I would receive a phone call that evening from the bed manager to be admitted the following day for cardioversion. No phone call materialised. On phoning the bed manager that evening they had no knowledge of the admission. The cardioversion was then rearranged for a few days later. My INR had been persistently not in range and I contacted the cardiac surgery nurse via email to inform him of this. This was to avoid any further cancellations. However, the nurse didn’t respond to the email and when I was admitted my INR wasn’t in range and hence the anaesthetist informed me it wasn’t safe to proceed. Again this was investigated by PALS and policies I was informed had been put in place.

Eventually received my cardioversion but unfortunately this wasn’t successful. My personal thoughts are if I hadn’t waited months for the procedure it may have been successful. However, we move on. But yet again poor communication struck again. A few weeks ago I had an appointment to see the liver Consultant. I hadn’t received a text reminder so I phoned the secretary to query this to be informed that someone had cancelled my appointment. I informed the admin manager but no feedback was received. Luckily, the secretary booked me back in.

Yesterday I was admitted for a liver biopsy to be informed I was to stay in overnight. I had already phoned the liver Consultant’s secretary last week to check that I didn’t need to stay in and they said they would email the Consultant to clarify. Because I received no information stating I had to stay in I went to my liver biopsy expecting a day case procedure, The information received through the post stated I was having a day case. Again the procedure had to be cancelled as I hadn’t brought all my medication with me (on lots of specialist medication), I hadn’t made any arrangements for home etc.

My point is that despite me informing various individuals about potential problems that might occur nobody seems to use enough common sense to follow these queries through. I’m aware that administrative mistakes can and do happen in a large Trust, particularly when an individual has a serious chronic health condition. I myself used to work at the Trust. However, there appears to be very poor communication and the sad thing is all these errors could have been avoided. If I wasn’t under the care of the brilliant home haemodialysis team I would be transferring my care elsewhere.

Apology after apology will not cut it anymore. I’m also contacting the Care Quality Commission about my concerns.