Three years ago whilst living in Lancaster I hurt my foot. Having had broken bones before, I did not think that it was broken and so did not go to A&E, however after around a week I was still in a lot of pain so made an appointment with my GP.
They told me I should go to hospital for an X-ray that day.
I went in, waited a while, got called in, had my X-ray taken and waited for the members of staff who I assumed where trainee radiologists due to their unprofessional behaviour, to say something, but they didn't. So I asked if that was it and if they could see any thing, they said they couldn't and then just sort of left me to walk out of the X-ray room without telling me to leave or telling me what to do next, never mind opening the door for me to limp out.
I felt quite confused.
Around a week later I had a phonecall from a member of Staff at my GP surgery. They said, we have your results and your foot is fractured. I said okay and hung up.
Again, feeling very confused...
So called back and said I've just been told my foot is fractured, what do I do now? They said well, isn't it wrapped up? I said no, as nobody had mentioned bandaging it etc. The receptionist was very surprised by this so said that I should go to hospital and get some crutches and that they would ring the hosp to let them know I was coming.
Off I limped to hospital, when I got there they weren't expecting me and didn't know who I was. Because of this, understandably, they said they can't give me crutches without viewing my x-ray. So I waited.
Eventually I got called into a room with a member of staff who was looking at my x-ray and said my foot isn't fractured it's quite clearly broken and will need a cast.
I couldn't believe it! I had been walking around for two weeks on a broken foot with zero medical advice.
So I had it plastered up.
I'm worried because I feel like there were many mistakes made through out the process from mis-diagnosis to poor communication, which lead to my foot taking much longer to heal than it would have had I received the correct treatment straight away.
I understand nothing can be done now. I wish I had known about patient opinion at the time so that I could have had an explanation and hopefully something will have changed so that this doesn't happen again.
So I am writing this in the hope that this will be read and will not happen to anyone else in the future.
I would also like to say the ladies who looked after me in A&E seemed as confused as I was but, regardless, were absolutely lovely, very professional and caring and a credit to the NHS and the hospital.
"My Foot was Broken But No One Told Me"
About: Royal Lancaster Infirmary / Accident and emergency Royal Lancaster Infirmary Accident and emergency Lancaster LA1 4RP Royal Lancaster Infirmary / Trauma and orthopaedics Royal Lancaster Infirmary Trauma and orthopaedics LA1 4RP
Posted by Calqy33 (as ),
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