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"A nightmare that never ends"

About: Barnet Hospital

My husband health issues started in October 2013. He is suffering of chronic throat inflammation with an unknown origin so far. After seeing his GP, he was transferred to the ENT service of Barnet hospital to do some infection test. After 1 month they were unable to detect anything. But his problems continued and he started to develop what seems to be a cyst. So his doctor decided to plan a surgery to remove and analyse it. After more than 3 month waiting (!) he finally got his surgery on the 4th of March. The day before he had a voicemail saying that his surgery had been transferred to chase farm hospital... How convenient to change the location less than 24 hours before after 3 months waiting. Luckily he had the voicemail on time and we had a car. So we showed up there and after struggling to find the service (nobody is working in this hospital at 7.30 am?...), nobody there could find his file nor knew his surgery was planned there! Really reassuring.... After several call around the hospital, his file and the place of the surgery were finally found. Let's pass the joke of the anaesthetist saying that he is there to have his wisdom teeth removed.... His surgery went well hopefully. We were quite surprise to not even see the doctor before leaving, and without any information... One week after we received a letter for an appointment on the 14th of April at Barnet hospital for the surgery following. In the mean time we didn't hear anything about the results.... During the appointment, my husband finally received his results (after 1 month and half of stress....) to hear that they identified the cyst as a granuloma that can be the result of many things. After that he was discharged.... which I don't understand as the ENT service didn't identified the cause nor treated him. Then it was impossible for them to send the results letter to the GP or to us! We had to wait 2 months to receive the results!!! How is it possible in 2014 with internet to have to wait for so long? I had to harass on the phone for 2 hours both the hospital and the GP last week for them to send the results by fax so that my husband to have an appointment with his GP. And now we are back to square one, as his GP wants to send him back to an ENT service for additional exam meaning we will have to wait 2 to 3 months to have an appointment.... This is just outrageous. Are they waiting for him to develop to be in a serious condition to be taken care of? It just really fell like none of the doctor care about the patients and that we have to go through useless administrative procedures....

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Responses

Response from Barnet Hospital 9 years ago
Barnet Hospital
Submitted on 01/07/2014 at 16:41
Published on nhs.uk on 02/07/2014 at 04:00


Dear Ophelie I am very sorry and concerned to learn of you and your husband's experience regarding the ENT Service at Barnet Hospital and the various difficulties you incurred. Please accept my sincere apologies for the distress caused to you and your husband. Hearing about where we can do better also helps us to pinpoint where exactly to make improvements to the service we provide. I notice that your response is partially anonymous but should you wish us investigate your experience further then please do contact our Patient, Advice and Liaison Team (PALS) by email at bcfpals@nhs.net or by telephone on 0208 216 4924 Kind regards The PALS Team

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