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"I have been under the care of the Dermatology..."

About: Medway Maritime Hospital

I have been under the care of the Dermatology department for 5 weeks now and so far I an extremely disappointed and fed up. At my first appointment I waited for over an hour because they couldn't find my referral letter. It took half an hour for a nurse to come out and explain this to me. The receptionist was completely unhelpful to the poor nurse, found the whole situation hilarious and spoke so loudly on the phone to another college trying to find the paperwork - who by the sounds of it was not computer literate - everyone could hear what referral letters they could find (for other departments, not information I'd wish to be shared). She also then loudly ridiculed the woman shed spoken too once she put the phone down. I then spent 5 minutes with the consultant who just put me on more antibiotics despite me telling him in my experience they don't work and at 25 I want a proper solution to my skin problem. He wanted to see me back in 6 weeks, and I was to have a blood test a week before that appointment in case I wanted to start the medication I went to him for in the first place. He told me to go to reception and hand the appointment form in to get it booked - the receptionist just said someone else would sort it for me and dismissed me. After a month I hadn't heard anything so I called to find out what was happening as needed to know when I had to go for a blood test. I was told I had an appointment booked for another 2 months time! I said the form clearly said 6 weeks, and the snotty reply I got said that there probably wasn't enough slots so they just booked it then. I said this is pointless because I only had enough abs for 8 weeks anyway. The woman managed to find a cancelled slot in a weeks time, giving me enough time to get bloods done. I work nights, so this meant starving myself during a 12 hour shift to get bloods done first thing before the clinic got busy. I went the next day for bloods, only to be told once I had been called in, that the nurse couldn't take them as the consultant hadn't actually ticked any boxes to indicate what tests were to be run! He had simply written "Pre Isotrentonin" in the comments box which was completely useless - the nurse said unless boxes were ticked the hospital would just throw the bloods away! Not what you want to hear when you are tired and hungry after a long night shift. I will now be starving myself again tonight during my shift and going to the department straight after work as advised by the phlebotomy nurses to find out what bloods I need, so I can then go drive to and sit in another phlebotomy clinic all over again. If I am unable to get bloods tomorrow, Thursdays appointment (with a different consultant) will be completely pointless as I still won't be able to get the medication. I get married in 5 months - this is not what I need or how I expect to be treated.

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Responses

Response from Medway Maritime Hospital 9 years ago
Medway Maritime Hospital
Submitted on 03/02/2015 at 17:06
Published on nhs.uk on 04/02/2015 at 00:00


I am very sorry that you have had this experience in our Dermatology Department. Please contact me directly and I will do my best to help you. Please email me on the following email account. rebecca.steele@medway.nhs.uk.

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