Still no appointment letter from the hospital in the post Monday morning. That's twelve days waiting. So, I rang the surgeon's secretary to enquire. I was disturbed to discover that she didn't have access to Mrs Cornish's surgical appointments diary. She didn't apologise for not acknowledging my message of Friday afternoon last. She told me that Ms Cornish is on study leave this week, and in my opinion this may mean the next appointment lists have not yet been prepared, but who knows?
She wasn't very forthcoming in response to my concerns but did say that there is now a 36 week waiting list for minor surgery. This disturbed me even further. She promised to email Ms Cornish and enquire on my behalf, as I am so concerned to know when I will be seen. Knowing if I am going to be available for duty or not is a matter of urgency. She said the pre-op assessment handled scheduling and that I could call them, which I did. Their auto-response device intended to deal with waiting list enquiries wasn't working and disconnected me. I was so infuriated by this I decided to re'activate my complaint procedure with the Local Health Board, and wrote an email describing what happened. It's a repeat performance of what happened last June-July.
Today I was called by a hospital trouble shooter and told officially about the 36 week waiting list, but not whether this was from when Mrs Cornish saw me or from the pre-op assessment appointment. I was offered no information about where I might be in that 36 week queue, only that I would receive six weeks notice of such an appointment. It seems that my final operation is regarded now as 'routine' and 'non-urgent', despite reassurances that it would be dealt with sooner or later because of the tissue over-granulation problem I experience. No explanation offered for the reasons behind this. I said that such a lack of definite information was outrageous and unacceptable and that I would be escalating this complaint.
I then set about writing to the Welsh Assembly's First Minister, to whom I wrote back in July to tell him of this repeat performance. Delays are evidently due to lack of resources and that's common knowledge, but it doesn't provide an excuse for keeping patients in the dark about the practical details of their treatment plan. That is just bad management, and needs to be addressed. I walked down to Mark's constituency office and posted the letter through the door, in the hope that ti will be picked up and read tomorrow.
I feel as if I am in limbo at the moment, not knowing where I stand, unable to confirm commitments I want to make until I know when I will be dealt with.
This morning, Laura, one of the Euro-diocesan safeguarding administrators rang to tell me about the need to make a digital CRB check application. After racking my brains, I vaguely remember doing this for the diocese five years ago when the new system was in its infancy. But I still need to prove who I am with supporting documents, posted or emailed to HQ.
This afternoon I popped in to see Emma and Nick and their wee bairns, and got Emma to countersign my old and new passport copies and a copy of a pension document with my address and NHS number on it, all required to support a digital CRB check application. Then I did the on-line application, and sent digitized copies of my proof of i/d to Laura. One more job done. Just in case there's any CRB confusion due to my recent change of passport, I emailed her and the Church in Wales safeguarding office a certified copy of my new passport, as queries will go back to these offices rather than me, as they are the agencies requesting checks. I wonder when the Church in Wales will switch to the same system as the CofE has had for five years already. It seems we're always a bit behind the times.
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