"MRI Hassle"

So my story started back in October, waking up in the morning with peripheral vision loss in one eye. Called NHS24 who advised to go to Wishaw and they informed them of my arrival. Got seen relatively quickly and transferred to Haimyres to be seen by the Opthalmist who referred me to the Medical Assessment Unit. All this went by fine. There were concerns of a stroke though not acute so was advised I would be getting an MRI in 2 to 3 days and had been marked as Urgent. 

This is where the experience went all wrong. Waited 3days and no appointment, so phoned the MAU then got told it could take up to 2 weeks. Nothing after 2 weeks,then told it is usually 3 weeks. 3 weeks passes and nothing. I started phoning the MAU everyday asking them to chase it or any news. After 4 weeks one nurse mentioned it was Monklands that done the scheduling. So I phone up Monklands and get through to the person scheduling, who says that it will take up to 15weeks. I mention it is marked urgent and there is a note on it that says it should be done very quickly. They say they will look at it and then a few days later I get a letter for an appointment. During all this I emailed the complaints details on the website about the complete lack of information and got no reply from them either. 

So the MRI actually happened 8 weeks later and something was found. I was told it was classed as old, which is greater than 5 weeks but I should have had it a lot sooner than 8 weeks, would that have helped the doctors or given them more info I am not sure they would need to be asked but what I do know is it shouldn't have taken so long. So I was informed that a second MRI would be needed. Knowing what happened the first time I spoke to the Xray reception who advised me it had been put in for December and requested for last week in January. So the second week of January I phoned Monklands again spoke to the scheduling person again and got told once again it would take 15weeks. Once again I say there was a note on it requesting it for a certain time as it is a follow up MRI for a found issue. They look at my notes say "oh, I will look at it". I get a couple of missed calls that day from the hospital as I was in meetings. So phoned back the next day get told I would get a letter for an appointment for Feb. My first main issue is that TWICE the notes on my account were not read properly by medical staff and I had to chase them to just read them. But even WORSE was being told that the appointment had been cancelled and to ignore the letter because my bloods were out of date. I asked if I could just keep the appointment and get my bloods done in the mean time as it takes 48hrs at most to get that all sorted but was told it had already been cancelled!

I was also told my consultant would be in touch to organise the bloods, a week passes and I phone up MAU about the bloods. They didn't know about the cancelled appointment and everything. They were great and got me in the next morning for bloods. I phone up the MRI scheduling department to see what was happening I get told they can see the bloods on the system and I was told that what needs to happen is a doctor needs to review my bloods and then re-request another MRI!!!! So it all starts again, Feb would still have been a realistic appointment even NOW! But what will happen is I will need to chase the MAU as I have been given absolutely no timescales for when all this will happen and then chase MRI scheduling again to make sure they have read my notes as it seems they just don't! 

What is most frustrating and is ultimately a complete waste to the NHS is how inefficient this whole thing is... from not reading notes consistently, to cancelling appointments which didn't need to be and not keeping people informed meaning more nurse hours spent on the phone with me having to re-explain my situation well over 20 times. I will say everyone has been polite and friendly on the phone but sometimes that isn't enough I just need some information not projected timescales. If after 3 days the nurse who answered the phone said "I will chase that up for you and get back to you" rather than just giving me another off the cuff timescale, then this might have been avoided. 

While I would like to say this will change from what I have heard about MRIs it wont, so to anyone who reads this and isn't sure what is happening with their MRI from NHs Lanarkshire ... chase it up. Phone Monklands, ask for the Xray department reception and they will get you to the MRI scheduling. Keep pestering them for information and don't accept not knowing cause that is the worst thing and causes more stress in what will be an already stressful time.