We always welcome a Letter to the Editor to share with readers. If you have something you’d like to share, get in touch. This letter comes from from Philippe Wines. Ed
I have been lucky and privileged to be very well served by the NHS since its creation in 1948.
The NHS, in all its different branches and specialities, has proved to be all that its founders wanted it to be and has generally always performed outstandingly well for this patient. I have much to be thankful for over the years.
However, many will have heard about the shocking horror stories of late about poor standards of care, low levels of staffing and corrosive cultures created by inflated and self-important management mandarins in other parts of the UK. These horrors have not affected me or my family thankfully.
A growing concern
Nevertheless, there are certain incidents that have arisen this year to both me and my family on the Island which are a source of growing concern. None as dramatic as the things reported in the press, but none-the-less concerning and they are about the lack of any meaningful communication between our surgery and the hospital, and vice-versa.
Two examples:-
(1) My wife had a minor operation during the heat-wave resulting in a 4 inch wound in the nape of her neck and in her hair-line. Despite the heat and location of the wound, no anti biotics were prescribed and only a flimsy piece of surgical tape was put on the wound. Result? A raging infection a few days later with powerful anti biotics and then a double infection with even stronger anti biotics. The infections lasted over a month.
The original operation was performed in St. Mary’s Hospital and the sutures and aftercare was done by our local surgery. Despite all the weeks of drama, i.e. treating the infections and our local surgery reopening the wound to look for suspected neglected stitches, we were startled to receive a letter from the hospital a few weeks later confirming the nature of the operation and telling my wife that the procedure was successful and there were absolutely no complications following the operation!
It seems that surgeries do not routinely tell the hospital of the result of minor operations!
(2) My local surgery performed an ECG on me during the early summer and sent the result, together with an explanatory letter, to a Cardiac specialist at the hospital for his consideration. My GP dictated the letter in my presence and hearing and said that whilst waiting to hear from the hospital I should call 999 if I felt faint or dizzy!
A number of weeks passed and as I had heard nothing from either the hospital or the surgery I reluctantly decided to phone the surgery to find out if they had received a response from the hospital. Speaking to a surgery receptionist is invariably something of a challenge, even when you manage to get through. This one wanted me to see the GP again, a futile suggestion in my opinion. I was then told to phone the hospital. This resulted in my being told that no letter or ECG had been received by them and to get my surgery to FAX copies to them immediately. I went to the surgery and 30 minutes later the hospital called me with an immediate appointment within 3 days. Weeks later, it transpired that the hospital had got the original letter and ECG but has mislaid them!
When challenged my surgery admitted that they do not operate any diary system at all for correspondence. You would think in these days of computers it would be a simple matter to have a system that highlights unanswered correspondence.
Before computers I would handwrite an entry into a manual diary to check if a timely response had been received.
The onus is on the patient
I was told that, nowadays, surgeries entirely rely on patients to chase-up outstanding items of correspondence. Did you know that? Given the demographics of the Island, the average age and associated incidence of forgetfulness and debility of the populace, I am staggered and consider this practice downright dangerous.
It seems that a possibly dangerous piece of negative ‘admin culture’ has been introduced to the island by GP Practice Managers which needs exposing for it potential dangers.
Yours sincerely, Philippe Wines
Image: Dafne Cholet under CC BY 2.0
