Husband's eyes

[ZIZI]

husband got a letter this morning, it was a copy of one sent to his GP saying that he has failed to attend two glaucoma clinic appointments and asking the doctor to "urge" him to keep the appointments in view of the serious condition of his eyes. He has late diagnosed glaucoma and has lost 80% of his peripheral vision. If he would let me apply he would be registered partially sighted but he won't, as far as he is concerned he can see so is not blind, or partially sighted, forget about the bumping into people and things, losing vision completely in low or high light levels etc. I admire him for his attitude although it was not always so, there was a lot of angst and upset in the early days especially when his driving licence was taking away.

So so he has had four operations on his eyes, while he was awake (EEEK) and has eye drops daily which sting but he puts up with it to save what remains of his sight. He has recently been told he has the start of cataracts which would be bad enough for anyone but with so little sight it is worrying. I know this is not going to sound right but I hope the cataracts develop before I finish working so I can use my work health care programme for him.

I have done done my usual careful penning of a letter to the consultant from Kingston hospital and the local surgery. I pointed out that when his medication was changed back in June because of the change in his eye situation he was told that he would have a follow up appointment within six weeks to see if it was being effective. Nothing came so he phoned the eye unit and chased the appointment. They said they would send an appointment. It came but it coincided with a break we had decided to take (to get away from the kitchen rubbish) so he phoned to change the appointment. He was told he could have an appointment in April 2017! He pointed out that he has a serious eye problem and that was unacceptable and the person said that if he had serious problems he should go to A&E! Customer care NOT. After a rather long conversation and various explanations he got a date of 28th October. Not ideal but do-able. Then, out of the blue, a letter arrived changing the appointment to 6th October with only four days notice, husband was running a training course and couldn't get time off. The day after the letter arrived he phoned the eye unit who told him he couldn't change the appointment over the phone (even though he had done so previously). They said they would send a letter with a new date.

When the letter arrived this morning we thought it was the new date but it wasn't, it was the aforementioned letter which husband is furious about AND it says that he has been offered another appointment which he has not.

SIGH I feel like everything that can go wrong does go wrong in this bruddy house....... I did put on the end of the letter our holiday dates so they can be in no doubt what so ever NOT to give an appointment but why do I feel the date they give might be right in the middle???

[ZIZI]

GOOD GRIEF I seem to be constantly moaning about things these days don't I? I will try to bring some joy to the forum in the future.

[Gemini]

You have a lot to moan about Zizi!

This is awful, really bad, your poor OH and poor you

[Plantaholic]

That sounds very complicated Zizi, hope he manages to see someone soon.

[Oma]

It happens all the time Zizi I remember when my late FIL had a appointment at the hospital THEY changed it 5 times he and MIL were so confused by it all then they said he had missed a appointment when he hadn't , my DD sorted it out eventually for them and said to the Consultants secretary how daunting it was for elderly patients to get all these changes and her Grandad wasn't well to start with , no explanation was ever given for all the changes , but they did apologise for the upset it was causing

[ZIZI]

Oma this is not the first time the appointments have been changed at late notice by any means but husband is so annoyed at being accused of not bothering to turn up when he is meticulous about his appointments that I felt putting pen to paper (or keyboard to computer) was the right thing to do. They cannot continually get away with complaining about people not turning up when it is untrue. Kind of smacks of making excuses in my opinion particularly as the eye unit my husband goes to, although flagged as NHS, is privately outsourced.

[Daisy]

Zizi - As if your poor husband's eye problems weren't a big enough problem for him, he and you, have to cope with the extra stress of all this bureaucratic nonsense. It sounds as though their records are in a real mess, but the real problem is that your OH isn't getting the treatment he needs! I would be furious as well, so rant as much as you like.

It sounds as though his records are in at least 2 different places, but I do hope it gets sorted out properly now.

[Shemadee]

Totally right to take it up with them! I spent nearly two days going round in circles trying to cancel an appointment, finally got to speak to someone who promised she would make sure it was dealt with but I still got a letter saying that I had DNA'd. I don't want that on my hospital notes as it gives a totally wrong impression. I hear of it all the time and it is so annoying and such a waste of resources.

[Nana]

Zizi having to fight for my eyecare I can totally see where you're coming from. I really feel for your OH not having any peripheral vision. It's awful but at least I'm getting mine sorted now. Waiting for my fourth op'.... yes with eyes open.

Where I live there's a system where we're given a password to get onto the NHS site to respond to an appointment. It comes with the appointment. What a pity you don't have this.

I really hope that he gets sorted soon because like anything else you don't realise how important something is until you loose it. All I would say is to keep pestering them. Now I go straight to the Appointments line & speak directly to whichever Secretary I need to, if it's short notice. I know you must both be exhaustedly tired but you'll find the strength to rally round for this one. Good luck.