My Wife and I (Our Story)

[SexyGreyFox]

@SexyGreyFox is there a claim for clinical negligence here?[/QUOTE]

Sorry for late reply, don't know why I didn't get a notification.
Looking at it I'd say yes.

Op, detail every single thing where you think there has been a Breach of Duty, bypass Complaints and send straight to the Chief Executive, it will still go to Complaints but get dealt with quicker.
You should get a Letter of Response within 30 days and if they admit anything go to a Solicitor who deals with Clinical Negligence.
Of course you can still contact a Solicitor before Complaints but a Breach of Duty admission goes a long way.

Edit
The above is if you believe the hospital has made a mistake, for GP practice you will have to look up their Complaints procedures.

 

[Rannoch]

I'm so sorry to hear your story mate, wish you and the family all the best.

 

[Efour]

I'm sickened to read this.
I hope your situation and the pressure and stress for you and your family gets better.
You're a better man than me.

 

[JamesH85]

This is a tough, disappointing and sad read OP.

You have my deepest sympathies, I really hope that you and your family are able to find some way through all this and come out of the other side in a much better place. So disappointing to read about the neglect of the NHS, the service seems so far away from where it used to be.

I really hope the service improves for your wife, and she is able to find some comfort in future treatment.

On the back of the heroes job that you have already been doing, you will find it hard but please take 5 minutes to think of yourself as well. You are doing all the heavy lifting in this support role for your family, and you WILL need support too.

Macmillan has been mentioned several times here, I don't know of any other support avenues you could seek but if anyone could mention them here they maybe of great use in the future.

All the best man, keep your head high I applaud your courage in such hard times!

 

[BowdonUK]

That is a very sad story. It is also frustrating to read of the hospitals lack of taking an interest instead of just passing things off.

I'd keep everything documented, like you're doing.

I'd take the advice other people have mentioned in the thread and for all your family to keep on fighting.

You're all in our thoughts.

 

[Andreworex]

Firstly, very sad story and situation, hopefully the care improves and situation gets better for your partner and your family.

I was reading your story thinking my partner who is a nurse wouldn't have gone home until your partner had those drugs, I know for a fact a consultant would have been able to proscribe those drugs if someone was willing to do leg work to make that happen, shocking service and it seems with the NHS, its luck of the draw who you come across.

My partner had a similar situation of poor care very recently, was diagnosed with a suspected brain tumour, over the phone from the GP following a blood test, was a very cold, matter of fact call that took 1minute 34 seconds, was horrendously upsetting as you can imagine - things got worse following this, no appointment to discuss further care as "GP not accepting walk in appointments following covid" just told "will be in touch with referral to neurology", the care and tone given was horrendous and I lodged complaints with the GP and our local MP, nothing came of those.

so we were left in this limbo of waiting for a referral with the fear of a brain tumour in our lives - from a blood test!

Lucky for my partner, she is a nurse in the radiology department and so was able to "skip" the queue with contacts of her work friends - probably the only perk of being a nurse from what I can gather, I was willing to pay for private MRI scans etc at this point.

She got an appointment with a leading neurology consultant who put the brain tumour diagnosis to bed, said that the blood results could point to a number of things and a brain tumour would be the last on the list!

After further tests, it turns out she is infertile with uterine polyp growth, which while still horrendous is different to the GP "brain tumour" knee jerk diagnosis.

I now have ZERO trust in GPs and the care community and have taken out private health care policies for both of us.

 

[shorttricky]

@Thesnipergecko Macmillan is a brilliant service, but it might be worth looking at local cancer hospices as well - although they specialise in palliative care, they can often offer temporary respite services, wound treatment and medication management as well.

 

[Datamonkey]

I am so sorry to hear this fella,

As others have said... If you haven't already, speak to McMillan they are amazing.

My brother has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and McMillan have been amazing with the help and support as he lives quite a distance from the rest of the family.

 

[Thesnipergecko]

We had some good news last week. The consultant rang on Friday at 15:30 (should have phoned at 12:00) but has said he just wants to do 1 more cycle of chemo (4 more injections). He doesn't think she will need to do the Stem Cell / Bone Marrow process as she responded so well to the Chemo. Starting Monday 4th April. (Yesterday)

In other not so good news. She ran out of pills again last Thursday, due to the ****-up a few weeks ago, it threw everything out by a week. The consultant rang Friday to say her pills were ready to collect. So I raced off to the hospital (knowing everyone goes home at 17:00)

Got there in time, went to collect the prescription... it's not ready... and you need your wife here to give a water sample before they can dispense the chemo tablets (Thalidomide)... I managed to get them to dispense the Daltaparin (blood thinner / anti clot) injections, but everything else had to wait until our appointment yesterday. So no medication for the weekend at all...

Went for the appointment yesterday at 15:30... sat around, went through all the pre-injection questions blah blah, blood pressure taken, temperature taken, water sample done... all good. Nurse went off to the to the pharmacy to get the Chemo injection... ... ...

No one notified the pharmacy she was due in yesterday... the Chemo hadn't been prepared... So we've got to go back again today.

Can we at least get her prescription, she hasn't had anything since last Thursday. "Yeah we need a water sample first"...

You've had one... took them another 30 minutes to find it. 17:15 we eventually got the prescription and got out of there with medication but not having had her chemo treatment... (I mean its fine.. not like its important or anything is it really) 17:55 I eventually got to pick our daughter up from after school club. Drive home, cook tea. Spent all of 10 minutes with her before getting her into bed.

I can't wait for this **** to be over. 4 more visits to go.

 

[tom_nieto]

@Thesnipergecko - really sorry to hear about your wife’s diagnosis. Glad she’s responding to the treatment. I find it hard enough to navigate the health service and I’ve worked in it for over a decade. It’s amazing what can get done, but it’s often in a very antiquated and not joined up fashion. I wish her the best for her recovery, she’s lucky to have such great family support.

 

[StonedPenguin]

Sorry to hear this, stay strong!

 

[LeMson]

Had similar with a family member Hope everything goes well OP

 

[Vita]

Man that was a hard read. I hope all your difficulties are made easy. God bless.

 

[Maccy]

We had some good news last week. The consultant rang on Friday at 15:30 (should have phoned at 12:00) but has said he just wants to do 1 more cycle of chemo (4 more injections). He doesn't think she will need to do the Stem Cell / Bone Marrow process as she responded so well to the Chemo. Starting Monday 4th April. (Yesterday)

In other not so good news. She ran out of pills again last Thursday, due to the ****-up a few weeks ago, it threw everything out by a week. The consultant rang Friday to say her pills were ready to collect. So I raced off to the hospital (knowing everyone goes home at 17:00)

Got there in time, went to collect the prescription... it's not ready... and you need your wife here to give a water sample before they can dispense the chemo tablets (Thalidomide)... I managed to get them to dispense the Daltaparin (blood thinner / anti clot) injections, but everything else had to wait until our appointment yesterday. So no medication for the weekend at all...

Went for the appointment yesterday at 15:30... sat around, went through all the pre-injection questions blah blah, blood pressure taken, temperature taken, water sample done... all good. Nurse went off to the to the pharmacy to get the Chemo injection... ... ...

No one notified the pharmacy she was due in yesterday... the Chemo hadn't been prepared... So we've got to go back again today.

Can we at least get her prescription, she hasn't had anything since last Thursday. "Yeah we need a water sample first"...

You've had one... took them another 30 minutes to find it. 17:15 we eventually got the prescription and got out of there with medication but not having had her chemo treatment... (I mean its fine.. not like its important or anything is it really) 17:55 I eventually got to pick our daughter up from after school club. Drive home, cook tea. Spent all of 10 minutes with her before getting her into bed.

I can't wait for this **** to be over. 4 more visits to go.

Keep going mate, you're doing a super job!

 

[Django x2]

Sorry to read this. I knew from line 3 where this was going. My dad is going through the same thing, and has been in and out of hospital since October with infections due to no immune system. He's now midway through cycle 5 (of 6 hopefully) before stem cell treatment. He's been given 10+ years life expectancy through treatment / management.

 

[grudas]

sorry to hear this! hope she recovers quickly and life can can go back to normal for both of you.

 

[Thesnipergecko]

Here we go again.

Quick recap: Chemo finished in May 2022. Unable to have Stem Cell Treatment as she still had an open wound from her pressure sore. Was left to with partial remission and blood tests every 4 weeks to "monitor" it. Pressure sore healed fully by July.

Last few weeks she's had several blood tests and several consultations. It's back. She's relapsed. Had a phone call last week (25th November) and was told by the Consultant that she would need 2nd line treatment and would need to come into clinic as soon as possible to get the ball rolling. I asked if someone would phone rather than rely on a letter to tell us the appointment time etc knowing the postal strikes were on this week. Anyway...

We hadn't received an appointment letter from the hospital for her for tomorrow (as I expected, which is why I told them last week someone would need to phone us because of the postal strikes) so I phoned up to see what time her appointment was....

She hasn't got one...

Several calls later, someone finally checked the notes of her consultation call last week. "Book an appointment and phone patient to let them know to discuss 2nd line treatment in 1 weeks time"

So why hasn't it been done I asked..

"Reception must have missed it".

Great! Thanks for that. Anyway, booked an appointment for us tomorrow at 10:20.

 

[Worthy]

What a bloody kick in the sack. Let us know how the appointment goes if you feel it’s helping

 

[bingham67]

Jesus I know we fell out of contact a long time ago, but so sorry to hear this you and your wife dont deserve this I dont know what to say really.

It shows how NHS is crumbling though it very sad to see how she was treated they really need to do more and quicken up processes when dealing with cancer as the waiting around it no good.

 

[kinetic747]

It seems ridiculous, and totally unacceptable, that the simple things i.e prescriptions and appointments, aren't organised properly. Good luck for the future and don't forget to look after yourself also, something that's easily overlooked in the circumstances.