By John Sullivan,
Just for a change I am writing this guest blog on a
different subject to the ongoing race to the bottom in quality of care and of
life for Your Choice Barnet service users and families, and the need to bring
the services back in-house, and raising the issue of the incompetent administration
at Barnet General Hospital.
I am an ardent supporter of the NHS and oppose the current
privatisation of the NHS that is being scurrilously introduced by Dishonest
Dave and his motley crew of millionaires and of course Pinocchio Clegg, that
have no need for the NHS as they are all wealthy and can afford private health
care.
Constantly we attend clinics at Barnet General Hospital (
BGH) with our disabled daughter Susan, and repeatedly we are told , your
appointment is not today it was last week, or it is next week or it is next
month, admin staff have obviously changed the date and time of the appointment
but not advised the patient, because on every occasion and there have been many
many occasions we have had the letter to prove we had arrived at the right time
and on the right date.
Recently my wife Ida had to revisit a clinic for a scan on a
very serious subject, she had the scan on
time and then was told she needed to wait to see the doctor, five hours
Yes 5 Bloody hours later she was still waiting to see the doctor. The fact she
was prepared to sit and wait for five long hours will give you some indication
of the serious nature of the reason for her visit, and all because of an admin
cock up.
I like my wife I am a recovering cancer sufferer and have
had reason to attend my GP as a matter of urgency recently, the end result
being I have to attend BGH to have an Ultrasound scan and an internal
examination. On Monday of this week I received a phone call advising me there
had been a cancellation for today Sunday 28th July and would I like to take the
appointment , as mine was a problem of a potentially urgent nature and I
naturally agreed. You can I am sure imagine that my stress levels have built up
by the day in anticipation of what they might find and what they might tell me,
so I was glad this morning to be on my way to find out whether I had a problem
of a minor or sinister nature, my time in limbo was nearly at an end.
Don't you believe it this is BGH the admin disaster centre
of the universe, an administration system that is simply not fit for purpose,
and the overpaid chief executive and all his or her overpaid lackeys should be
sacked for overseeing this ongoing and constant incompetence.. The appointment letter
says I have to be at the day care unit at the appointed time of 11-15am, but
the accompanying letter of what and what not to do advises, that I have to have
an ultrasound before I attend the day care unit, or let us say it is written in
a very ambiguous format that leads to confusion. Because there were two other patients
at the ultrasound that was closed doing exactly what I was doing, arriving
early so I could sit and wait for the ultrasound , and get it done in time to
be at stage two as instructed the day care unit by the appointed time of
11-15am, or at least that was our interpretation of the instructions. I had
called the urology department earlier in the week to try to qualify the
procedure as there e was constantly no answer at the number I was given to
contact if I had any queries, but they appeared not to know.
When we arrived the ultrasound department was locked and
bolted so we walked to the day care unit that I had already telephoned earlier
in the week, due to the ambiguity contained in the instructions, to find out
what the procedure actually was. Only to be told I was not on the list for today,
however I was on the list for today but the Muppet that called me to take the cancellation
had failed to change the patient name on the appointment , and I thought what a cock up , I said to
Ida the admin in this hospital beggars belief it is crass incompetence.
But as the famous Irish comedian used to say " and
there is more ". We had now realised we did not have to get to the
hospital until 11-15am and they would then escort me to the ultrasound
department, and bring me back to the day care unit for my internal examination.
Realising we were now very early and we had our daughter Susan with us as we
always do, I asked my wife Ida to ask the receptionist if we could go to the
canteen get some food and coffee for Susan and come back a bit nearer our
appointed time, and she suggested we wait until the nurse comes out to speak to
us which we did.
Then came the punch line the absolute exposure of the
chaotic dysfunctional administration that runs BGH, a level of incompetence
that absolutely beggars belief. Myself and another patient were told we could
not be seen this morning and would have to come back this afternoon, the poor
nurse with enough to worry about . Was having to cover for the incompetent
useless admin staff who were probably
having a Sunday morning lay in, whilst this poor nurse was attempting to
pacify irate patients over errors she
had no input in or control over.
Is BGH a good hospital I think Yes, but the administration
is a disaster area, it is pathetically incompetent
and until somebody like me seeks to expose the incompetence of the administration
staff the problem will never go away. It is absolutely outrageous that skilled
nursing & medical staff with a myriad of things to deal with should be
constantly dealing with admin cock ups, and taking the stick for those having a
Sunday lay in. I am sure I am not on my own so let's here from others that are
up to their necks with this incompetent BGH administration, and make the first
steps to forcing them to get their act together or go . Because I am sure there
are many more competent admin staff sitting idle of the unemployment register,
that would do a bloody sight better job than the Muppets engaged to do it at
this present moment in time.
The punch line being I have just had a phone call to ask me
to be there at 12 noon, you could not make it up could you. So please make known
your admin cock ups so we can start a campaign to improve the efficiency of BGH
admin, and hopefully bring it up to the level of medical treatment we get from our local hospital . By
doing so you will make the lives of Nurses, Drs and consultants much easier and
less stressful, it is time the patients took a stand and dealt with this
incompetence once and for all.
Tell your story to Barnet Eye
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