I had been singing the praises of Leicester Royal Infirmary and their ‘telephone appointment’ arrangement, I should have foreseen that it would all fall apart.
I consider myself to be a low risk MGUS patient and I am quite happy not to take up Haematology staff time in attending an appointment. The idea seems perfect for the hospital and enables them to concentrate on those with active myeloma. Having said that I do expect the ‘telephone appointment’ to be honoured and all I require is four figures. If they don’t call then it can’t really be defined as an appointment.
I have previously been let down by the hospital not telling me things, and very serious things but let’s not go there. Haematology also missed that my eGFR had deteriorated at a rate that fell comfortably within NICE referral guidelines for Urology which is disturbing for someone with only one kidney. As it happens I decided to await the nest set of figures, and they improved. It is embarrassing if I am acting as my own physician. but I didn’t make a fuss over it.
Having waited half the day for a call that never came I then received a strange note through the mail that is barely comprehensible but seems to suggest that this ‘telephone appointment’ is a vague optional arrangement that the hospital may honour or not as it decides.
I’ve been down this path before and I am not going there. I rang the phone number on the note and there was no reply. It went to voicemail and I offered to collect the results if they called before 5pm – again no reply.
I have written to Haematology at LRI and described what happened and pointed out that the optional arrangement they have sprung on me isn’t an appointment by any definition and that I will be submitting a FoI Subject Access Request.
At the end of this note it states “Please contact is if you are not happy with this arrangement”. I haven’t said it, but my response would be that I am not unhappy if they don’t mind me submitting FoI SAR’s each time. Beneficially, since it relates to a test performed within 40 days there is no charge, just the cost of recorded delivery. Since I get the full ten pages or so, it seems a fair deal.
It is the right of any patient to make a FoI Subject Access Request for their medical records and this ‘non-appointment’ appointment was foisted on me without warning. I am surprised that more people don’t apply for medical details when doctors can be so unwilling to divulge the results of blood tests.
