Thursday, September 15, 2011

UCLH, Not Stanmore - Getting wound up now!

The words "brewery", "up", "in", "a" and "piss" came to mind yesterday morning. It had been far to early a start what with having to be in the office for 4am for what was eventually a waste of time, so I was already proceeding at quite a pace from "grumpy" to "peeved" and eventually on to "pissed off". The 9:20am appointment with Mr Surgeon Man resulted in a number of admissions, namely:
  1. I am no longer seeing Mr Specialist Man at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore - that was a mistake, he is actually at University College London Hospitals centre in Euston (funnily, even closer to where I used to live in London - a mere 3.6 miles!)
  2. Mr Surgeon Man is leaving the hospital as is to be replaced with a doctor with a pretty horrific reputation as he is returning to work in Gibraltar
Now, I can forgive the mixup with the hospital in the UK, it happens... but point two above needs clarification. This is not just some idle slander, this is documented and well known within the local community. There is a great case study here where a patient originally treated by this surgeon went through hell for a broken femur and was eventually fixed properly at a specialist centre in the UK. Which one? Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford.

Needless to say, I will be declining treatment by said doctor and have already begun arrangements to continue seeing Mr Surgeon Man privately upon completion of my consultation (and, if required, surgery) at UCLH.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Change of plan, off to the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore

Contrary to last week's post where I was planning to visit the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford, a little bit of internal hospital politics has gotten in the way at the GHA and I'm now going to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) in Stanmore, Middlesex... only 10 miles north from where I used to live in London - familiar-ish surroundings at least.

As for the shitty politics, to save going round in circles, the issue can be summarised as follows:
  • Mr Surgeon Man knows Mr Specialist Man in Oxford and has referred patients there in the past
  • Mr Specialist Man looked at my xrays and case file and decided he needed to see me before making a decision on best course of action
  • Mr Specialist Man arranged for an appointment for me at his clinic at the end of October
  • Mr Surgeon Man gave this info to the "Sponsored Patients" Department in Gibraltar
  • "Sponsored Patients" declined to send me to Oxford... reasons for which are unclear, but I have deduced thus far that it's something to do with cost and/or the fact that they don't have SLAs in place with this centre
  • Mr Surgeon Man fought my case with Mr Director of the Hospital Man who refused and told Sponsored Patients to find an alternative
  • RNOH is said alternative
I have yet another appointment with Mr Surgeon Man tomorrow where I'll hopefully find out when I'm going to London.

The saga continues...

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Off to see a specialist at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre

Yesterday I received a call to let me know that I would be going to the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford to see a specialist in non-union of fractures (hereby referred to as Mr Specialist Man). My appointment is scheduled for the 28th of October and I need to go and see the sponsored patients department at hospital to sort out my travel arrangements, etc.

As the Gibraltar General Hospital is just that, a general hospital, anyone requiring specialist care gets referred to a specialist centre such as the NOC in Oxford when their care requires it. As we have a general medical scheme here which means we get medical treatment covered by taxes and social insurance, etc, the Gibraltar Health Authority pays all expenses associated with travelling to see your referred specialist... kind of like going privately, at no expense to yourself.

For now, I only have a consultation to attend in Oxford as Mr Specialist Man wants to see me personally before he decides on a course of treatment... that will be a full 7 months since I originally broke my humerus.