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waiting time and cancelled surgery

Story from nhs.uk

"waiting time and cancelled surgery"

About: The Tunbridge Wells Hospital / A&E and trauma unit

I have had a car accident in 1st, March and I have got multiple fractured ankle. I have got an external fixation for 4 months. My consultant said that my ankle is healed on 7th, July and informed me that they put me to the urgent orthopedic surgery list to remove the external fixation and said it will take a month to wait. After 4 weeks I called your booking office and they informed me that the urgent waiting list is more up to 3 months.

At the middle of August I have got loose PIN site and infection and I have been admitted to A&E in an other hospital near by my home. I have been seen by an orthopedic consultant who referred to my consultant about my condition and they advised to remove external fixation as soon as possible and my surgery has arranged on 27th September.

In the afternoon before my surgery day I have got a call that you have got some issues and I should not leave early morning on next day but I should stay home and wait for an other call.

Finally my surgery has been cancelled in last minute on my surgery day with non-medical reason due to lack of bed. I have got and other date for 2 weeks later on 11th October.

Now, I am so nerves 2 days before my surgery date... I am afraid that this will happen again.

I think I was very patient first time, especially I am a nurse, who is working in NHS but I cannot be anymore. I am waiting for this surgery (what takes about 5-10 minutes) for 16 weeks on the urgent list with medical reason because my leg condition is deteriorating with this external fixation on.

Because of this delay, I cannot start my rehabilitation and I cannot return to my job to NHS….

I am loosing money and NHS loosing staff. And what a vicious circle, the NHS is under staffed.

Everybody should be on other part to understand this feeling.

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Responses

Response from The Tunbridge Wells Hospital 6 years ago
The Tunbridge Wells Hospital

Submitted on 14/11/2017 at 18:45
Published on nhs.uk on 16/11/2017 at 03:17

Thank you for leaving a review of your experience of the orthopaedic service.

Please accept our apologies for the delay in responding to you.

We were sorry to read that your surgery was cancelled at short notice.

As you will no doubt be aware, the NHS as a whole has seen increases in emergency activity and at times, this has impacted on our elective admissions.

As a Trust, we have been working hard on this with a focus on reducing unnecessary hospital admissions and improving the discharge process for patients who are fit to leave the hospital.

We have increased our ambulatory care facilities as well as reconfiguring wards to improve patient pathways.

We have opened a dedicated orthopaedic unit at Maidstone Hospital and are looking at other ways in which we can improve our elective admission pathways.

We are sorry that your admission was cancelled and hope that your operation was rescheduled smoothly.

If you would like any further information, please contact the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) on 01892 632953 or email mtw-tr.palsoffice@nhs.net, where a member of staff will be happy to help.

With best wishes, The PALS Team

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