h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well. you can't win them all. or, I guess, stupidity always wins.

On the 1st April this year, the NHS stopped using fax machines.

No doubt, this was to represent a move forward into the 20th centuary… - you know, those new-fangled E-Mail things (yeh, I know they'll never catch on).

The fax machine, has, though, apparently, not been replaced by E-Mail; instead, they've replaced it with, royal mail/snail-mail.

Seriously.

Phoned my growth hormone provider company, to request a new script; they have to then request this from my surgery.

The surgery haven't received this request; I suspect this is because they no longer have a fax, and the GH provider probably sent it by Fax.

OK, I think; they've stopped using fax; so E-Mail it. No. can. do; neither can do E-mail; surgery won't accept it, and so even if the GH firm send an E-Mail, surgery won't accept it.

So. we have to phone the GH company again, to get them to write to the surgery, with a pre-paid enveloped,, so they can post the prescription back.

I have frustrations in getting my sinus congestion taken seriously as I asked for a referral to ENT due to my condition not responding to nasal sprays and similar treatments. The doctor said he would not refer me to ENT and gave me a prescription for nasal spray which did not make any difference to my condition. I told the doctor that nasal sprays did not help alleviate my sinus congestion. The doctor referred me to the X-ray department but without a referral letter as he said he sent my referral electrically. When I signed in at the X-ray department at Orsett hospital ( I waited 10 minutes) when the receptionist told me that I am unable to have my sinuses x-rayed as I need to be referred to a specialist. Now I have an appointment with my GP where I have to explain why I did not get my sinuses x-rayed and that he needs to refer me to ENT.

Neither the GP surgeries or hospitals an email for patients to use as a contact method but there is the option to book appointments on-line and have on-line consultations.

We have a solution

In the same way as for dealing with Drs; do not what they say, but do the exact opposite. in future I'll order the growth hormone, in the 'normal way' for 99.99999% of all other medications, through the GP surgery website/user thingy, and thereby get them prescribed through our local pharmacy, as opposed to doing it 'the way I'm ment too',., I.E., through this weird external drugs company - which was how I was told only* to order them. If I just do the opposite to what I'm told, most things just seem to work, full stop Either the 'system' is just the wrong way round', or, I guess, I am hang on.... am I upsidedown?

Meanwhile, in a hospital not far from 2legs, my mother is going through a similar nightmare to what we have been reading in this journal over the years.

She is 99 and lives alone. She is getting older and frailer and more and more forgetful and has had a few falls. She contracted a UTI a couple of weeks ago and was found by her neighbour one evening, having fallen and got herself a few more cuts and bruises, still on the ground.

Anyway, I may explain the details in my own journal some time, as I am getting daily e-mails from my sister, but suffice it to say that she has been in three different wards and no one seems to know what the other ward has done. On top of her other problems, she has picked up pneumonia whilst there.

Things are looking up now, but my sister has continually had to fight the system: she finds one decent doctor or nurse to talk to, and the next day, all that information has gone by the board and she's back to square one.

I can confirm what 2legs has always said - communication is non-existant, and they won't listen to the patient (or people who know them well enough) when they try to tell the staff what is normal and what is wrong.

It really does make one feel helpless doesn't it? - from either side I guess, either as the patient yourself, experience.... suffering it, or as a loved one, SO etc, seeing it happen to someone else...

But... the worse thing, is, I think, I really don't know what the answer is; on one hand its a consequence of hospitals being so big, but similarly there are benefits (supposedly) to bigger hospitals, with greater a range of 'services', although, I think either case, without a working coms system, it all fails - I am liking the new 'my chart' patient 'porthole' account thing; for getting results and letters through on; I've asked to be a tester/user feedback patient on it, as its got a few accessibility issues, and has a few features, which either don't work, or just don't work right; on the 'message my team' (send a electronic message) bit, for example, I seem only able to contact my oncologist... not my endocrine team, bone Drs, neurologists, cardiology etc -- TBH the least likely for me to contact electronically is oncology; I'd be more likely (and have), just turned up on spec, when I've had a cancer-relapse concern... for fairly obvious reasons (actually mainly as the GP said to just go to the hospital, as a referral takes too long) - to be fair, when I've turned up in oncology on spec, with no app, I've always been seen in an hour (again; ignore what your ment to do, natch...)

Cardiology app Monday; first for 18 months; my cardiac condition can't be treated, only 'regularly monitored with 6 months apart scans, and once yearly clinic apps; I've had no results of scans in 18 months, no results of the heart monitor back from two years ago and am one year and a half late for my main MRI scan- I hope the cardiology consultant can handle an enraged 2legs on a Monday morning; I think little of them, and plan to tell them such)

in otter news; off to Norwich, in a few hours for our long weekend away, I've nearly finished packing, whilst W is at the gym, dealing with our last client of the week whilst I pack.... first break away since last year, and I ing well need a break away (have mainly been holding off a break, as cardiology has held us hostage, awaiting the app for the MRI scan; which has. not. occurred. - = slightly peeved by cardiology, they seem a step up from other deps for negledgent incompetence etc...) - whilst away visiting a small beer fest in a nearby village to where we're staying (all of which is areas I know since I was a kid )

Now, to hunt down the rarest of things thesedays; spare shopping carrier bags, to pack in the case; so to put dirty clothes etc in whilst away....

I just put the used washing in the case as I'm finished with it. Folded up neatly to save space. Then when it's time to leave, just put the still clean clothes on the top. Shut case. Job done. Ready to go.

Luckily we did find a couple carrier bags - ju7st makes it quicker to figure out which bits are destined straight for the wash, and throw them in the machine on getting home, and therefore which clothes are clean, and can be put straight aw3ay Was a great weekend away, needed that break... and turned into a longer break, as we hit this supper heated weather, and due to my heart I'm not ment to exercise when its hot like that, so had a week off the gym... - first day back at gym today.... and feeling the exercise I did a lot more than useual