"Four years of hell at Amersham Dermatology!"

Anything else?

As someone who worked in the health sector for 24 years, I had hoped that when I needed the NHS it would be there for me. For four long years I have been attending the Dermatology clinic at Amersham. The first two years were absolute hell as I suffered from a severe skin condition covering most of my body and topical steroids failed to do a great deal to ease my suffering. My first consultant failed to treat my condition effectively , which caused me and my family a great deal of distress, eventually leading to the loss of my career. I have since been told that my skin condition should have been treated far more aggressively with oral medication right from the start. Eventually, I was prescribed CsA by the Drug Monitoring Clinic which caused life-threatening side effects. When I tried to get in touch with the clinic, as advised by my GP, I was rudely turned away and told to go back to my GP. After 5 days of trying to get hold of someone at Amersham, my GP eventually had to make a formal complaint to resolve the matter. In the meantime, I decided to stop taking my medication and made a formal complaint of my own. That was about 2.5 years ago and I am still trying to find out what happened! Bucks NHS Trust have completely side stepped all my questions and failed to effectively deal with my complaint causing even more distress. Eventually, they did agree that I would see a named doctor. You've, guessed it,since then, I have been referred from one doctor to the next and have never seen the same doctor more than twice. There has been no continuity of treatment resulting in missed diagnoses. About six months ago, I thought enough is enough and tried to speak to the consultant responsible for my treatment. I was told that he had left 18 months ago. and I also discovered that no-one had been monitoring my treatment once again! I have since been told that it will not be possible to see the same doctor in the clinic as they are short staffed! It is hard enough trying to live with a debilitating skin condition, but even harder when those who are responsible for our care do not take their responsibilities seriously. Too many issues are falling through the cracks due to poor communication and lack of continuity of care. Those of us with severe skin conditions deserve better than this. We need Dermatologists to take their responsibilities seriously. I understand that patients with minor to moderate skin conditions are able to attend community clinics and are given a choice of day or evening appointments. If only we were all treated with the same respect! Action: 1) I would be grateful, if someone deal with my original complaint and explain why my treatment has not been monitored effectively on quite a few occasions. I need the full details this time! 2) What has happened to the clinic at Wycombe Hospital? 3) Are patients with severe skin conditions allowed to access community clinics? 4) Am I able to go to Oxford, but still get my blood tests done in Bucks