"Treatment for Retention of Urine"

I have always been appreciative of the excellent service Manor House gives to the people of Glossop.We are lucky to have this facility but today I felt let down by the practice when trying for a long time to get help for my husband who had developed retention of urine after laparoscopic gall bladder surgery at Manchester Royal Infirmary.I rang MRI and was advised to take him straight away to my nearest A and E dept.

I then rang Manor House and a very helpful receptionist explained that they were not able to do this without him being seen by a doctor.I decided to arrange for a friend to take him but then realisedA and E would not be expecting him and that it may be better to see our GP who could refer to the district nurses who should be able to catheterise as in other areas of the health service and there by reiieve his severe pain,The receptionist did this for me but later on in the morning I received a phone call from the surgery to say the GP was not going to visit and I had to book an ambulance to take him to hospital.The surgery booked a non emergency ambulance with an arrival time of between 1 to4 hours.I actually consider a retention of urine of overnight duration an emergency.After waiting for over 3hours with my husbandin excrusiating painI rang the surgery again and spoke to a doctor who was helpful and advised me to send him to A and E in a taxi,which I did.Finally at about 6.30pm he was catheterised and relieved of his discomfort.

It seems to me that somehow there is a hole in the service which my husband fell through.Perhaps I should have thought of a taxi but I didn’t.I unfortunately am not allowed to drive any more and was struggling with a heavy,chesty cough so it was a real problem and for the first time I felt very let down that it took nearly 12 hours for my husband to get treated.