Monday, January 26, 2009

Sleep / Appointment for assessment

Sleep is still the biggest problem for my recovery - I am not getting any real quality sleep. Rarely am I asleep for more than two hours before I have to get up and walk around. The healing process seems to continue, and I have now managed up to 40 minutes at the keyboard before the dis-comfort is too great to continue.

It's in the administration that the NHS is really let down. Although I can remember seeing staff on the wards who appear to have little to do, and others who appear to never stop, its in making appointments the problems are really noticeable. I was told that I would be sent an appointment for three weeks from the surgery. On Friday last I phoned the appointments number for the hospital. They do not do appointments for follow-ups, those appointments are made by the clinics that see you - it sounds sensible enough so far. I rang the other number. No, they do not make appointments if you are following up a stay in hospital. They transferred me to the ward. The sister who answered the phone apologised saying that the ward does not have an appointments clerk, and that she would call me back.

As good as her word she did - twice. So eventually I have an appointment for next Tuesday. What a waste of effort - both theirs and mine.

All this sub-division of labour reminds me of the company I once worked in. The complexities had not been resolved properly there either. In that case it was me pushing callers to someone else because the process wasn't clear. I hated that aspect of the job. So having been there I tried to remain patient while it was sorted out. Its a good thing no-one was monitoring my blood pressure though.

No comments:

Post a Comment