Mountain Biking and the NHS

If you remember last August when we went camping with the Evans boys, I stacked my bike and sprained my wrist, or so I thought. It has never healed and has consistently been sore. For a long time I thought I was just being a ‘girl’ but now I realise I actually did some damage.
So…in true NHS style, it has been a long time coming to find out the exact problem with it. Here is how it went:
I first visited my GP who referred me to a physiotherapist, who then referred me to get an MR scan. After the a 6week wait for the results of the MR scan, the physio diagnosed some damage and that I would need to see a consultant orthopaedic surgeon. So, an appointment was made for the consultation and I waited another 6 weeks for the appointment. When the appointment finally came around, the scans had not been sent from the physio to the surgeon, making the appointment a waste of half a day off work. In the mean time I had an X-Ray, which of course showed nothing because the problem was always with the ligaments. So, by the end of that appointment, the surgeon assured me that by the time I came back for a follow-up appointment the scans would be in her possession and to come back on 25th June.
After writing the date in my diary I went out to the receptionist for confirmation, and found out that the surgeon is on leave on that day, go figure? I left the hospital without an appointment but with a promise that I would get a call the following week to give me a time. The middle of the next week came and went, so I called physio clinic myself to find out if the scans were on their way to the surgeon. No on had sent them on.

If you want a job done???….. I organised the scans to be forwarded myself, rang the surgeon’s secretary to give them the heads up about the mail they should be receiving, and asked about the promised appointment. As it turns out, that the surgeon wasn’t on leave on the 25th June at all and that the receptionist had made a mistake, which also meant that the earliest appointment at 8:30am (which I had requested) had gone and the next available appointment was 11am, meaning I wouldn’t make it to work that day at all! Thankfully, I was able to negotiate my way in to a 9am appointment.

A couple of days later I received a confirmation letter about the appointment. The time on the letter stated that my appointment was at 11 am! WHAT?! This is ridiculous, I thought, can they get anything right?!
So…again I called the surgeon’s secretary myself and after a little ‘chat’ she said that I could ‘come in at 9am and she’ll see what she can do, but can in no way guarantee that I will get in straight away’.

The appointment finally came around, great!...The surgeon told me that the MR scan report had been sent through, great!...but…the scans themselves, because of some NHS legislation could not be sent on to the hospital. The surgeon who is going to perform open surgery on my wrist does not, by NHS legislation have a photograph of the damage of my wrist!!

So, from the report (which could have been faxed over on the first consultation) the consultant confirmed that I would need open surgery as she suspected making an incision 2” long, drilling into the bone, putting a nylon stitch to reattach the ligament and cartilage to the bone and then out me in a full plaster for six weeks. ☹ Turns out that my ligament, cartilage has completely detached themselves from the bone. Maybe I wasn’t a ‘girl’ after all.
Oh…and there is a waiting list of about 14 weeks.

Gotta love the NHS!