HSE - :( fukkk

Ave Sodalis wrote: »

If it's any consolation OP, I developed symptoms 7 years ago and I am no further forward towards getting a diagnosis despite my symptoms getting considerably worse. It took years to get a GP to take me seriously in the first place, and now it's just waiting list after waiting list.

I was discharged from the rheumy without ever being told, after one triage appointment with a physio. I waited well over a year for that appointment, and the OT told me I will definitely need to be seen there again. I rang them nearly a year later to see what was going on and they then informed me I had been discharged and if I wanted to go back, I'd have to go back on the waiting list. I'm going to be honest here and say I cried during that phone call.

I'm waiting several months now on an MRI and a neurologist appointment. I'd be lucky to get either in the next year.

I was referred to the ENT as I've had a problem with my nose since I was a child. It wasn't massively serious but I do have a nasal drip and get frequent enough infections, which can cause a lot of pain. I went in with the full awareness that they were limited in what they could do, but the reason my GP referred me there in the first place was because my mental and physical health at the time were locked in a downwards spiral with each other and if one small thing could be fixed, it might break that spiral. Again, it took over a year to get an appointment, and there were nearly a year between appointments. My 3rd appointment, I left utterly humiliated and furious as the doctor told me I just didn't know what a cold was, and accused me of being a hypochondriac. Now, I'm the type of person who works in a high risk environment, that doesn't tolerate softness. I've broken bones and continued on with my day so a hypochondriac I am definitely not.

I waiting again over a year for a dietitian appointment through the HSE for IBS, with the intent of starting a low FODMAP diet. I finally got one at the start of this year. I was told to eat more fibre and we would review in a month. A month came and went, and no sign. About 6/7 months later, I finally got a second appointment via phone, and was told I was eating too much fibre (despite eating what they told me to) and to cut back, and also cut out onion and garlic. Also, that dietitian told me during that appointment that they didn't actually do FODMAP diets. They told me they would ring me back in 6 weeks, and refer me onto another dietitian who did specialise in FODMAP diets if their new suggestion didn't work. Well, it has been 5 months since then and still no 3rd appointment, and I have no way of contacting them as the phone line used before isn't answered.

So yeah, I'm in my mid 20s and I can barely move some days. There have been morning where I had to slowly drag myself up the hallway because I couldn't stand. My hands don't function properly, my hips are starting to go, I am seriously fatigued most days, my memory and cognitive function are declining terrifyingly. I used to do sport 5 evenings a week and now some days just getting to the bathroom is a chore. I used to be considered gifted, and was in advanced adult creative writing courses as a young teen, and now I have days where sentence structure doesn't exist, I forget what I'm saying half way through saying it, and I make a ridiculous amount of typos. Some days I could be looking right at the thing I'm searching for and it wouldn't register in my brain that I'm seeing it.
Yet, because of the incompetence of the HSE and GPs before them in so many ways, I am left undiagnosed and untreated. Whilst I understand they're swamped busy even during normal times, there have been several cases where it has just been obviously oversights and lack of care that has been dragging this entire experience out. I don't know when I'll ever get answers, or if I'll ever gets answers. I just have to hope whatever it is isn't terminal or causing too much of a reduced life expectancy.

thegills wrote: »

Maybe in the real world. But when dealing with Government agencies the customer always needs to chase up. Its sad but true. If they said they would call you ask by when. If they don't call you chase them down.

John Hutton wrote: »

Graces, it's a little hard to follow what has happened. Is it the case that the doctor close to you they want you to register with, after the retirement of your old doctor, is one which you do not want to attend as you do not feel he/she will prescribe the appropriate pain medication?

Rubberchikken wrote: »

They are stuffed with useless overpaid jobsworths hell bent on lasting in their 'job for life's until they collect their pension.

They don't care how inefficient they are. They have no reason to up their game. No reason to improve their work performance. Their inefficiency is accepted, complained about definitely, but nothing will ever be done about it.

sunbeam wrote: »

You are not alone in this Graces7. They are an utter disgrace.

I put in a long and detailed complaint to the HSE several months ago about several staff members and was fobbed off with a couple of sentences stating that they decided they had done no wrong. I was told that that one doctor was entitled to their opinion whether I agreed with it or not. Their opinion wasn't even a clinical one-just a series of nasty statements about me. None of the points I raised were addressed in any shape or form. They decided to reclassify all of it as clinical complaint so it would be dealt with outside of the Your Service Your Say process and I cannot escalate it any further-even though most of it was in relation to communications issues. A large section was never mentioned with at all.

In my letter to them I mentioned an earlier complaint from several years ago that had not been adequately addressed and asked that my current one be sent to a different complaints officer. They bizarrely decided I wanted to reopen the old complaint, which I had never asked for. They then proceeded to inform me that they had investigated the actions of the people I was now complaining about in relation to that earlier complaint and had received unspecified 'feedback' that they had acted appropriately towards me. Those people were not even in the service at the time and the earlier complaint was not about them! Honestly I feel like I'm caught somewhere between a bad Monty Python sketch and a Kafkaesque nightmare.

I'm not going to go into details about the actual complaint, but suffice to say it felt like dealing with a bunch of teenage bullies.

My GP has also retired, but thankfully the other one in the practice is more supportive than I had expected. I very sorry you are so unwell, but am glad you have been assigned a different GP and got your medical card and your meds. That is the most important thing.

Strumms wrote: »

Before I had my medical ‘misadventure’, I was, always hearing about this ‘world class health system’, ‘the best in the world’... ‘world leaders in...’ ahem....the Nazies would have fûcking bitten your hand off for such a propaganda machine... the absolute toxic malevolence in reality of people operating with ‘consultant’ or ‘manager’ in their job description as relates to healthcare in this country.. abysmal...