Paul’s experience: “I just feel lost in the system.”
Paul visited his GP at the start of the year with concerns about his foot which was making getting about, trying to keep active, and daily living harder. His GP referred him to Circle MSK for further evaluation. In March, Paul attended his MSK appointment, where the doctor requested X-rays to assess Paul’s condition before starting treatment. The X-rays were done a week later at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. In April, Paul returned to Circle MSK for his consultation, hoping to start treatment. However, the doctor couldn’t access Paul’s X-rays because they weren’t on the MSK system.
“The consultation was a waste of time, there was no consultation because there were no X-rays.”
In discomfort with his foot, worried that it was getting worse, and frustrated that his MSK consultation wasn’t productive because of the missing X-rays Paul contacted Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) to try and find out where his X-rays were. Queen Elizabeth Hospital told Paul his X-rays had been rapidly shared with Circle MSK and the hold-up wasn’t with them. Paul contacted Circle MSK to try and find out what had happened to his X-rays.
"I spoke to a receptionist, told her how painful my foot is and that my doctor couldn’t treat me without the X-rays, and it was really important that my doctor got my X-rays. She was downright rude,” Paul told us in June.
"She told me they had my X-rays, but they wouldn’t be uploaded anytime soon because they're too busy and they’ve got a huge backlog, so I’d just have to wait. I told her how important the X-rays were for me – the difference between getting treatment or not getting treatment," said Paul. "I couldn’t believe how dismissive she was. I even asked to speak to a manager – three times – and she just ignored me.”
Circle MSK didn’t tell him when his X-rays would be uploaded – or how he would know so he could book a new appointment.
"It's been many weeks now and I don’t know how much longer it will take them to upload my X-rays, so I don’t know when I’ll get to see a doctor again or when I’ll get treatment for my foot," Paul told Healthwatch Greenwich. "I feel helpless and confused”.
Read Circle MSK's response below:
We were very sorry to hear of Paul’s poor experience with us. Our PALS team contacted him after we were alerted to his case to apologise for this. I’m pleased to say that we had, by this time, received his X-ray results, and were able to arrange an appointment for him very soon afterwards. I’m delighted to say that he responded well to his treatment (with a 90% improvement when reviewed 4 weeks later) and we were able to discharge him from the service.
We always expect our staff to speak to patients in a courteous manner, which can be challenging from both sides particularly when needing to explain systems and processes which are perhaps not meeting an expected standard or timeframe. We must also take into account that our patients are often in pain, so being told they must, unfortunately, wait longer for their treatment can be extremely disappointing and frustrating. We are therefore sorry that Paul felt that he had been spoken to in a rude manner. Our administrator had tried to explain that, unfortunately, the follow-up appointment he had booked would not likely be helpful because the X-ray results were not yet back, but understandably he had wanted to keep the appointment anyway. We are also investigating why we didn’t receive the X-ray results until a month after QEH said they had sent them – if there is something in the communication system which needs to be fixed, we will obviously look to fix it.
We would urge any patients who feel their care is not up to standard to contact our PALS team. The easiest way to do this is via email: circle.integratedcare.pals@circlehealthgroup.co.uk or via telephone: 020 3893 8382.
