I have Type 1 diabetes and attend the clinic at Gartnaval General Hospital in Glasgow. The clinic has been functioning on a "remote" basis during the pandemic. I recently had an issue regarding the ordering of insulin pump supplies - the Health Board responsible for my funding started to reject invoices from the pump company so they were unable to provide infusion sets etc., leaving me in danger of running out of pump supplies.
This seems to have been a simple administrative error and should have been easy to sort. My problem was that it was nearly impossible to contact my clinic. NHS Scotland appears to have changed all their email addresses without informing patients of the new contact details - emails sent to the old addresses were rejected. "Non Urgent" telephone calls to the clinic are being diverted to voicemail and I did not receive the promised response within 24 h.
It was only because I know another patient with contacts in the MCN that I was able to obtain an email address to contact at the clinic. Hopefully, the difficulty with ordering pump supplies is being resolved.
I am well aware of the difficulties that the pandemic has presented to all aspects of the NHS. Nevertheless it is essential where clinics are not functioning on a face to face basis that patients be provided with support and this includes providing them with the appropriate email contacts, phone numbers etc. This does not seem to be the case.
"Difficulties in contacting clinic"
About: Gartnavel General Hospital / Diabetes Clinic/Centre Gartnavel General Hospital Diabetes Clinic/Centre Glasgow G12 0XH
Posted by joelm335 (as ),
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