"Getting Nowhere"

My consultant at James Paget referred me to the N&N for an operation. When nothing happened, I phoned to ask why I had no appointment. The consultant surgeon's secretary said no referral had been received, and the surgeon was off long term sick. Her attitude was basically "there are a lot of people in the same position as you. Anyway, we have had no referral." She said there was no-one else who does the operation, which I subsequently found out was totally incorrect. The referral was sent again. The N&N again denied getting it. I got a copy, and an advocacy officer for a charity hand delivered a copy and got a signature for it. N&N still denied receipt. I phoned PALS and sent them a copy. After well over a week they said they had given it to the Admin Manager for the department concerned, who said the referral was addressed wrongly, but they would deal with it. This is many weeks since I was told I needed the operation. The referral was clearly addressed to the correct department, so what happened to 4 paper copies of the referral sent to the N&N? Were they just binned?

In the meantime I arranged a private appointment at Spire with a consultant at the hospital, who certainly does do the operation, in order to try to get things moving.

No-one in the original consultant's office or PALS has cared at all about the severity of the situation. I have had to spend £150 on a private consultation just to get things moving at all. I should not have had to do that. I will lodge a formal complaint, BUT firstly, I need this operation to be expedited in view of the errors that were no fault of my own. I am not holding my breath that anything will be forthcoming from anyone other than the consultant I had to pay to see.