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hairmyres appointments

Posted By 3yearsofnothing

"hairmyres appointments"

About: University Hospital Hairmyres / Cardiology University Hospital Hairmyres / General Surgery (Ward 5) University Hospital Hairmyres / Medical/Gastroenterology (Ward 11)

(as a service user),

over the last few years I have been attending hairmyres hospital to get to the bottom of my chest pains I was under the care of cardiology for some time until they deemed it was non-cardiac chest pain and that they think it was to do with my stomach and throat and that they would refer me onto Gastro, I get a appointment to see a gastro consultant who believes all my pain is coming from acid reflux and that they would need to start me on omeprazole, after 3 dosage increases I was no better and when I seen the gastro Dr again I was told that I would need to be passed onto surgical, I could not understand why anyway I go to the surgical appointment and they agree its acid reflux and they send me for a 2nd scope which shows gastritis and some erosion, they then tell me that they will change my medications and add another medication on and if that does not work they will send me for further tests, barium, gastric emptying and ph tests, 3 years on why are these tests only now being mentioned and why do I need to wait more time for the medications to continue to fail.

my self and my wife feel let down by the NHS and are looking into private treatments

and people wonder why the NHS gets a bad name

why can the services not share tests and results and come to a decision without me seeing 3 different disciplines and 3 different consultants over 15+ appointments over 3.5 years

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Responses

Response from Neil Ferguson, Service Manager Care of the Elderly, University Hospital Hairmyres, NHS Lanarkshire 5 years ago
Neil Ferguson
Service Manager Care of the Elderly, University Hospital Hairmyres,
NHS Lanarkshire

Submitted on 05/11/2018 at 10:47
Published on Care Opinion at 12:08

Hi '3yearsofnothing',

I was sorry to read of your experience accessing our services. I can see that you're feeling very frustrated with the number of appointments, changes from specialty to specialty, and the overall time it is taking for you to reach a satisfying outcome.

It must be stressful and worrying for you and your family to be dealing with such a situation. Clearly your case is a complex one, which must be adding to your worry.

I agree with your comments that tests should be able to be shared between specialties where appropriate. I believe there will be times when this is not possible without sacrificing the quality of care you receive. For example if a test was performed a particularly long time ago, it may be prudent to repeat to get the most up to date information. I also believe that specific cardiac tests will differ from specific gastro tests, which will differ from specific surgical tests. I understand this will add to your frustration, however this would be another example of a time where sharing test results would not be appropriate.

Having said that, I still recognise that you've been without resolution for a long time now. Have you had the chance to sit down with someone who has reviewed your case recently? Perhaps a specialty nurse or other clinician who could help to explain some of the clinical implications leading to your frustration?

I hope you find this response of some benefit.

Neil

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