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"My experience with Cardiology Service as an..."

About: Southmead Hospital

This is my experience with the Cardiology Service as an outpatient at Southmead, and I hope the consultants leading will find it helpful and hopefully are able to identify the causes and maybe able to better and improve . My experience is as follows: My GP ordered a 24 hour heart monitor for me last year and on the basis of that, I was referred in August 2014, and after 5 months' wait, I got to see a hospital Dr in January 2015, he asked questions and I was fitted a 24/7 loop recorder on that day. I was told by the loop technician that the result would be ready 2 weeks as they were quite busy. I waited, thinking the least I could do for our NHS is to wait patiently. It is March now, the result for that test is still not forthcoming so 10 days ago, I queried that with my GP who encouraged me to ring the hospital, and this I did. May I say the switchboard at the hospital was efficient and helpful, though I did not get any results from those people except one at the hospital that I managed to speak to on the phone - They seemed surprised I rang upon my GPs encouragement, and they claimed they were not able to even tell me whether the result was ready or not. When met with such an insurmountable obstacle what can I as a patient do to obtain the necessay. Today,26th March, I saw my GP who told me that she didnt manage to get the result either and that I have another referral for another 24/7 loop recorder instead. No explanation from the cardiology service has been offered to my GP or myself as to what has taken place. Having been tested in August 2014 and then january 2015- I truly believe,with respect, I should be diagnosed by now or if not, at least some explanation. My symptoms have worsened and I need the cardiologists' help. I hope this is valuable feedback in terms of reviewing the best practices in patients communication.

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Response from Southmead Hospital 8 years ago
Southmead Hospital
Submitted on 11/04/2016 at 14:59
Published on nhs.uk on 12/04/2016 at 02:31


Please see previous response.

Steve Sykes

Advice and Complaints Team

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