"The hospital is clean and bright ..."

What I liked

The hospital is clean and bright with good parking facilities.

What could be improved

After being referred to the back pain clinic I turned up for my MRI scan to find that the machine was broken and nobody had bothered to call to let me know. The appointment was re-made for four months later, with was an unacceptably long wait. After having the MRI the hospital lost me off the system and my GP had to chase up Musgrove which meant my treatment was delayed by a year. After undergoing a second MRI the Consultant finally listened, after I had to argue with him, that I was experiencing hip pain and he sent me for an Xray. The Xray results showed a collapsed hip joint and I was referred to another orthopaedic Consultant. Just getting the first appointment took three months. When I finally saw the Orthopaedic Consultant I was told that there was a three month wait for a hip operation and he was pretty condescending.

Two months on from that appointment I chased Orthopaedic Admissions to discover that I have no appointment (not even for pre-operative assessment) and that the list is completely full to the end of February. This means the wait will be over three months.

Cross referral is poor.

The attitude of the first Consultant was dismissive and he did not listen to what I was saying about symptoms, so a correct diagnosis was hugely delayed.

The waiting time for a hip replacement was mis-represented, leaving me with no option to ask to go to a different hospital.

Altogether, the combination of notes being lost, delays in referral and longer than advertised waiting lists has meant that I should have had my hip replaced nearly two years ago. A very poor service.

Anything else?

Having discovered that I still date for my operation, I contacted Orthopaedic Admissions to see what could be done. They were very polite and helpful and offered to book me in for the pre-operative assessment, but were unable to tell me how I would be able to try to move the date forward by opting to go to other hospitals.