I rose early enough to walk to the surgery at eight to arrange an appointment later in the morning and returned later to see my GP, who had two very young looking medical students in attendance. She was able to tell me that my MRI scan had been registered on my medical record database, signed off by the consultant radiologist, a whole month after it had been done. A week later than stated by the scan operator, six weeks ago.
I expressed my concern that I had heard nothing from the surgeon, about when I would next be seen or operated upon, and asked (partly for the benefit of the students present) how so much time could have elapsed between the scan and its interpretation as during that time the wound condition would have changed again, for better or for worse, as happened in my case last time. Fortunately it has changed for the better, though the internal healing process is still incomplete. I could tell as much six weeks ago, but since the time of scanning, there's been even more improvement, as evidenced by the ease with which the wound can now be managed, as opposed to six weeks ago.
The District Nurse team could corroborate that, but they are not consulted either by surgeons or GPs, and neither surgeon nor GP has checked it out since then. I declared that in my view it's bad science, not much better than magic to rely on an abstract body map without the evidence of the examining eye so many weeks later. I hope the young girls in attendance will hear what I was saying about the inadequacy of this process.
Meanwhile, my GP promised to write to the surgeon and ask her to get in touch with me. I also learned there's still an appointment letter on the system for a September date. I received this at home around the time I went for the second operation, and was told to ignore it, as I could expect there to be more follow-up appointments before then. It's still on the system, however, and how do I know that this isn't contributing to delay on the part of some minor administrator who is unfamiliar with the case load.
Sure, the NHS is overloaded, but so often there are alarming gaps in the accuracy of some record keeping, not to mention the patient mail-out regime, with differing information systems in place that don't automatically connect with one another, some using out of date software too.
I went into town in the afternoon, via the clinic to pick up some supplies, to visit the Co-op bank and close a Super Saver account I've had for years. It was used to deposit the content of an ISA which I cashed in, I emptied it, as it only gave minimal interest. Six months later, the last sum of minimal interest, just twenty pence, boosted the balance from zero, and I received a statement telling me so. I've intended to get around to dealing with it for goodness knows how long, four five years maybe?
I just wanted to put the change into a charity box and put an end to this tiny waste of paper. But to do so I had to identify myself as the account holder, without an accompanying account card. Fortunately Coop bank makes this easy with a secret PIN code and memorable date, of which I'd kept a record. Mission accomplished, there was nothing else I could think of that I needed to do in town, so I returned home by bus. I had intended to walk but it started to drizzle
After supper I watched the first half hour of Cardiff's Singer of the World competition, and rather than sit for so long that I got really uncomfortable, I went to bed and read several chapters of Pablo Poveda's 'El Aprendiz', so I'm now half way through it, and pleased to find that it retains my interest, even when I have to look up or guess so many words which aren't quite in the dictionary. His trilogy is about a Spaniard but is set in today's Eastern Europe, and is bang up to date in the way it speaks of the information age and the surveillance state, in which countries East and West aren't that different from each other in the way they strive to control their citizens lives and behaviour.
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