"Could do better"

Anything else?

I presented myself to A & E on Wednesday 17th September suffering from an extremely swollen and painful left leg. I was seen by a triage nurse, a junior doctor and a consultant within two to three hours. The consultant was certain that my leg problem was caused by a deep vein thrombosis (DVT). I received an anti coagulant injection that day. The existence of a large DVT in my upper left leg was confirmed by way of a scan the next day. I was informed that I would be referred to a haematologist due to my existing leukaemia and also be invited to attend a follow up appointment approximately two to four months later. So far so good. Nearly five months later I had not received any form of communication from Broomfield. Fearing that I had been lost in the system I visited main reception, was passed to A&E reception and then onto Ambulatory Care reception. I was informed by Ambulatory Care that I should have been seen by now and that they would arrange an appointment as soon as possible. They kindly telephoned me at home the next day with an appointment date the following week. I attended as requested only to be informed that they did not have my notes. As a consequence information was taken by the consultant from data on the hospital computer system and my knowledge and recollection of events surrounding my DVT. To make the appointment even less meaningful than it was, I was requested to ask my leukaemia consultant (based at St. Margaret hospital Epping) a question the answer to which I should relay back to the consultant at Broomfield on my next appointment in three months time. Obviously I have suspicions that had I not enquired about hearing nothing for five months I would never have been contacted. I was also unimpressed by my notes not being available for the appointment. As for relaying a question and answer between consultants at Broomfield and St. Margaret hospitals I resent being the messenger on such complex subjects. Even though I could not remember the exact spelling of the name of the consultant at St. Margaret hospital it should not be beyond Broomfield Hospital to make enquiries in order that the respective consultants can communicate with each other.