Ye gods! :mad:

[Martinspuddle]

Sorry, everyone I going to have a middle aged rant.

They gone on about climate change, go electric, unnecessary journeys in your car and vehicle pollution, so why are patients being asked to travel unnecessarily?!

I'm required to have an X-Ray given by the consultant dermatologist, which is routine due to one of the medications I've been prescribed. (It can cause breathing issues)

OK, can I have the form, but Oh no it's been sent onto the hospital. Which hospital? Medway Maritime Hospital, a round trip of 43 miles from my house. Driving for me currently is somewhat difficult and uncomfortable, my wife cannot drive and all of you lot are to far away to help, so I'm told to use public transport or get a Taxi. It must be Medway Hospital for this departments requests I'm told. Now please bare in mind that 2.5 miles away from my home is Sheppey Community Hospital with X-Ray department, that's always empty! They are adamant it has to done at Medway and I the same fun with them last year over weekly blood tests, which I found out in the end could be done locally at my GP surgery.

I have no choice, the form is at Gillingham. It's two and half hours by bus I get to Medway Maritime Hospital, Gillingham and I find the X-Ray department ...to be told by the X-Ray department staff, you could of had this done at Sheppey Community Hospital.

WHY!??

[fr499y]

I do wonder at times if they do it on purpose just to p**s you off! Near me we have two hospitals in the same town with the same name. I think you can work out what usually happens here...

[Martinspuddle]

Update: I've just had a phone call from the NHS to arrange hospital transport to take me to ...wait for it, Maidstone hospital (25 miles away, round trip 50!) for an X-Ray.

Great to know where YOUR money is being spent!

[adm]

On the other hand, I live in a tiny village, 4 miles away from a bigger village where I do all my shopping and use the doctor there.

Last year I had some hip pain, went to the docs who then said "Well, you'll need an X-ray". OK, so I expected to have to go to Royal Surrey in Guildford about 10 miles away. "Oh no" they said "we have a full X-ray suite at the cottage hospital around the corner".

So when can I go?

"How about right now" they said, gave me a form and I trotted off around the corner - about 100 yards.

I never even knew there was X-ray capability there and the X-ray technician seem pretty pleased to have actually seen somebody that day. He didn't look very busy.

So it seems there may be resources available, but maybe not a very good way of distributing them.

[Martinspuddle]

On the other hand, I live in a tiny village, 4 miles away from a bigger village where I do all my shopping and use the doctor there.

Last year I had some hip pain, went to the docs who then said "Well, you'll need an X-ray". OK, so I expected to have to go to Royal Surrey in Guildford about 10 miles away. "Oh no" they said "we have a full X-ray suite at the cottage hospital around the corner".

So when can I go?

"How about right now" they said, gave me a form and I trotted off around the corner - about 100 yards.

I never even knew there was X-ray capability there and the X-ray technician seem pretty pleased to have actually seen somebody that day. He didn't look very busy.

So it seems there may be resources available, but maybe not a very good way of distributing them.

Where do you live? ...because we're moving in nextdoor!

[plankton]

This is due to the excess of administration staff who have no clinical experience and just make up stupid rules to make up for it....

[Martinspuddle]

This is due to the excess of administration staff who have no clinical experience and just make up stupid rules to make up for it....

This probably explains all the different excuses I heard with this.

One of these I've received this morning, apologising for the inconvenience but...

''unfortunately your GP surgery runs a different computer system to ours and we are unable to contact them via email''

For sake, last time I looked at the calendar it was the year 2024 not 1924!!! ...and what the hell has this got to do with my X-Ray???

[BigBen]

When I broke my wrist, 111 told me to visit Falmouth hospital as there was only an hour wait (it wasn't). They determined that it was broken and sent me to Penzance hospital for a scan to decide if it needed to be pinned, which is 25 miles away. Once I had the scan, the doc said it needed surgery, which they wanted to do that evening due to the location of an artery, which I had in Truro, another 30 miles away, and ironically, a 10 minute walk from my house. I thought it was the royal Cornwall trust having the lack of facilities, but sounds like it's not just us!

Hope you feel better soon!

[Martinspuddle]

I thought it was the royal Cornwall trust having the lack of facilities, but sounds like it's not just us!

We have the facilities, but it seems once your under a specific medical department, in my case Dermatology, they are determined for you to go to the main hospital in North Kent. This is even to have a plaster applied to a tiny injury!

My late father was once told by his GP surgery, that it is unethical for them to help him because he already under the Royal Free Hospital in London and this was for a unrelated medical problem he had. The whole setup to me is just badly managed.

I'm thinking now, I know, that's dangerous!

What really gets me @BigBen is the fact there are three community hospitals in the Swale area (Faversham, Sittingbourne and Sheerness) and everytime I visit the Sheppey Community Hospital, to me it's always seems empty or very few patients waiting. All three have Minor injures, Phlebotomy, X-Ray departments to name a few, all have Doctors and Nursing staff on site. I just don't understand why we are asked to travel 20 to 30 odd miles to a main hospitals (Ashford, Canterbury, Dartford, Gillingham, or Maidstone) which are stretched to the limit and have horrendous waiting times let alone for a minor medical test. Surely, it's better to go to the local hospital for a routine X-Ray or blood test, than clogging the main hospitals which are struggling to cope with ever increasing patient numbers.

[BigBen]

We have 1 A&E department in Cornwall, and a few minor injury units dotted around. I'm probably going to go through the hospital on the bus tomorrow. I'll take a picture of the ambulances waiting if I remember. There's usually about 30. It's really bad here.

I love the NHS, but it's so underfunded at the moment it's almost ineffective. That's a whole different political conversation I don't want on a fish forum