Sheffield Northern General Hospital

Wife had an appointment booked for this afternoon, tried calling them yesterday to see if it was still necessary to come through in light of recent events.

Phone didn't even ring just bleeped and cut off, was the same all day so checked the website which stated all routine operations and appointments are going ahead as scheduled and to attend.

So off we go, now bearing in mind it's a good half hour from where we live. Gets parked up and after spending 10 minutes navigating the wards and asking staff members that looked at you as if you had the plague we found the department 10 minutes before her appointment.

Was shown to the waiting room after being asked to wash our hands twice, before approaching reception and again before sitting down, nurse called my wife in and said we've just tried to call you as it is now a telephone appointment.

Low and behold on hearing this I check the wife's phone to see a voicemail waiting, no missed call just a voicemail saying he would try again before the end of the day.

Now not been funny or having a dig but why not send a text message out yesterday or this morning to save unnecessary travel, my wife already on edge as it is as she has a suppressed immune system.

She was litterally in the room 20 seconds for an hours round trip

 

I had a text saying my physio would be a phone call. This was Barnsley though.

 

I have a condition called diverticulitus... its kinda like getting appendicitus, but on the wrong side. It flared up on monday . I called my doctors and explained to the receptionist. A doctor rang back about 20 mins later took the details and diagnosed over the phone. A prescription was e-mailed to the pharmacy in our village and I was sorted. This may be a way to carry on even after the virus is sorted.

 

it would certainly help people living in the sticks and the elderly too.

 

Would have been my first session. Funnily enough they have just phoned me and said my assigned physio has been redeployed and they will phone me next week to do the initial consultation.

 

For some things it might.

 

Couple of weeks ago I had a doctor's appointment as I had what has become an anuual flare up of cellulitus. Can be serious even fatal if not treated with antibiotics. Showed Doctor, within a second's glance he diagnosed it and said here's a prescription for some antibiotics. I could have emailed him a photo and achieved same result. Like a few have said already, got to be a more efficient use of scarce resources, not just reducing infection spread

 

When my eldest was growing up he suffered from asthma and when it flared up it was always the same remedy , a dose of steroids . We knew this but every time we had to go through the same old routine of going to the doctor's to get the prescription we knew he needed anyway because we had dealt with it for years . It was a waste of our time and the NHS s and prolonged the remedy for our son . Very frustrating at times .

 

My mum has this (along with 101 other things) Painful eh?

 

I’ve also got that but it hasn’t flared up for a while, sods law it will though. Hope it’s not too bad for you.

 

All sorted now matey.

 

very