Postby Susan Mason » Wed 22 Feb 2006 12:56 am
Hi
I had the same problem with a long wait for my first hospital appoitmnet. My local optician had changed and he worked for an opticians of the 'high street' brand and whilst at a check up after the birth of my son I was calmly told I was going blind. Well you can imagine my reaction and no matter how many questions I asked him he wouldn't tell me why he thought this. I was referred via my GP to the local hospital and after 2 or 3 months I received a letter where I was quoted minimum 34 weeks wait to start off. After 9 months I received another letter asking did I still want to be on the waiting list, which you can imagine I didn't take well at all.
For me in the mean time I had no other choice than to go private and luckily for just under £100 I managed to get a decent prescription for some glasses and some words of wisdom about inexperienced opticians in fast in/fast out establishments. Now this could be a little unfair as it may not always be the case however, it does seem that if you only ever see straight forwards cases, well you never get to progress and if your employer trades on cheap and fast turn around well possibly you have no opportunity to try your hand at some of the more trying patients.
In the end some 15 months later I had no choice other than to be seen by the hospital, where my KC was eventually confirmed and I was told what the problem was. This appointment also I had to wait for and after several weeks where I found it really difficult to work I resorted to ringing the hospital and speaking nicely to the receptionist advising her I could no longer see to work and as such I was getting to the point where I may not be able to provided for my family, or I may loose my job. This resulted in me getting a phone call back several hours later, at her suggestion and also an appointment with the consultant some 4 weeks later.
What I am saying here is you need to keep pressing them for this. The receptionists are quite in the know and can pull the strings when they feel they need to. You need to be calm with them and keep your temper whilst painting the terrible situation you are in. After all they are not personally responsible however, they are the ones who can make it work for you.
The syspem basically appears to have quite a few problems in it and whilst it does not make anyone feel any better at this sort of time it is not uncommon for these sort of waits it seems.
I personally also feel that it seems to in some ways be worked on the matter that if you are told you have a wait and then do not ring and plead your case it is assumed that you are in no hurry to be seen.
Do try also access to work at the local jobcentre plus and action for blind people to see if they can help.
Your GP should also be of support to you at this time.
best wishes
Susan
don't let the people that mean nothing to you get you down, because in the end they are worth nothing to you, they are just your obstacles in life to trip you up!
That resulted in 3.5 months signed off work.
