5th September 2012 - how the NHS can make you even more anxious!

As I write this it has been 16 days since I spoke to my NHS clinical nurse who told me that the NHS consultant who I saw 3 weeks ago was arranging a second opinion with another consultant on the NHS.

As I hadn’t had any contact I phones her for an update – I am so glad I did.

Apparently there had been some complaints concerning appointments and the lack of them happening. Not by me I might add. I apologized to her for calling and just said I would be grateful for an update. She checked the records on the hospital system and apparently no appointment had yet been made. She also told me that the consultant was now on holiday until near the end of September. We had a lovely friendly chat where she was able to tell me that this consultant only did open operations, not keyhole; we both agreed therefore that he wasn’t the best man for the next meeting then.

In talking she said that normally the hospital operates what they call a tracking system for appointments for cancer patients. But as my original consultant had marked me down for Active Surveillance ( even though this wasn’t my end goal ), it seems the trackers were not put on my case. If I hadn’t pursued this myself I could probably have waited months - or to the end of September as I am having another PSA then.
So basically she confirmed that as I had turned down the original consultants offer to operate on me , I was marked as an AS to enable the statistics to be noted up for the NHS\Government. Shambles.

What is worse, this has caused anxiety that I didn’t need. I spoke with my nephew who is hospital doctor and he told me that the 'system' was flawed and I would be better going private. In my case it is looking that way. Its hard enough knowing that you have cancer inside you and living day by day with that thought, without the worry that your medical team may not be engaged fully on your behalf.

I have been thinking this all through, its like a project \ programme plan that has milestones agreed. One of these major milestones was the second opinion where my wife and I would attend , gain reassurance and then agree the next milestone, the treatment\cure option.

In my case the people who had jobs to do to enable the milestone to be completed didn’t do their job and I as the PM was blissfully unaware that the milestone would be missed.

So - as when all projects fail, it’s time for some proactive management.