Post by tangent on Apr 27, 2022 10:35:29 GMT
I think I've entered Schrodinger territory with the appointments system at the local hospital.
On Saturday, I was notified of two appointments within the Urology department, one yesterday and one next Wednesday dealing with two different medical conditions. Yesterday, I spoke to the doctor dealing with the first condition and mentioned next week's appointment. He was surprised and said he could also attend to the second condition, which he did in about five minutes. That apparently made next Wednesday's appointment redundant and, according to the letter that accompanied the appointment, saved the NHS £160. Pat said I should have asked for the money.
The doctor said he would write to my GP about both conditions and asked me to phone the appointments system and cancel Wednesday's appointment since it was no longer necessary. So I went online and used the system to cancel the appointment as he had asked. Unfortunately, the online system does not cater for 'cancel the appointment because the medical condition has been handled incidentally during an earlier appointment'. Pressing the Cancel button assumes you are no longer interested in fixing your medical condition and promptly discharges you from the system. A letter is now on its way to my GP telling her that I have cancelled my urology appointment. She will no doubt be confused because the first medical condition involves an urgent request to investigate a possible cancerous growth and I am expecting a CT scan within the next few days. And the doctor who attended to the second medical condition did not say he was discharging me and left it open to another doctor's judgement. I think this qualifies as Schrodinger territory (am I discharged or not) and will only resolve itself when the appointment system opens the box.
On Saturday, I was notified of two appointments within the Urology department, one yesterday and one next Wednesday dealing with two different medical conditions. Yesterday, I spoke to the doctor dealing with the first condition and mentioned next week's appointment. He was surprised and said he could also attend to the second condition, which he did in about five minutes. That apparently made next Wednesday's appointment redundant and, according to the letter that accompanied the appointment, saved the NHS £160. Pat said I should have asked for the money.
The doctor said he would write to my GP about both conditions and asked me to phone the appointments system and cancel Wednesday's appointment since it was no longer necessary. So I went online and used the system to cancel the appointment as he had asked. Unfortunately, the online system does not cater for 'cancel the appointment because the medical condition has been handled incidentally during an earlier appointment'. Pressing the Cancel button assumes you are no longer interested in fixing your medical condition and promptly discharges you from the system. A letter is now on its way to my GP telling her that I have cancelled my urology appointment. She will no doubt be confused because the first medical condition involves an urgent request to investigate a possible cancerous growth and I am expecting a CT scan within the next few days. And the doctor who attended to the second medical condition did not say he was discharging me and left it open to another doctor's judgement. I think this qualifies as Schrodinger territory (am I discharged or not) and will only resolve itself when the appointment system opens the box.