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Monday, August 10, 2009

I've got my Transrectal Prostate Ultrasound Scan on Wednesday. That's a blog post to look forward to. Apparently it can take four weeks for the results of that scan to reach my consultant (which is odd, as the x-ray department's only fifty yards away), so I was given an appointment to return to the urologist at 11:30am on September 17th to hear my fate. Unfortunately I received a letter from them on Saturday which said this:

"We are sorry to inform you that due to changes in clinic arrangements, it has been necessary to change your outpatient appointment."

Naturally I know all about changes in clinic arrangements. I had to make a few just to be free for that appointment. So having already altered the work rotas for August 12th and September 17th, I was slightly less than delighted to get a new appointment for September 3rd. When I'm due to be in Crawley all day.

So having squirted eye drops into my first patient this morning, I called the urology department and, at the second time of asking, they answered the phone. At which point the lady told me their computers had gone down, and she'd have to phone me back. I told her I was sitting in a consulting room in an unfamiliar clinic on an unfamiliar phone and had no idea of the number. So she put me on hold.

Three minutes and a lot of bad music later, she accessed the computer system and told me that September 3rd is probably too soon to get my results, so there's no point me having that appointment. I said I know that. So she put me on hold again while she went off to find out why they'd brought it forward by two weeks.

Five more verses of Greensleeves, and she was back to tell me that there appeared to be no good reason why they'd moved my original appointment. So she said she'd make me a new one. She looked at the computer and said "Would you like September 17th?". Unsurprisingly, I said yes. So she added "Let me see what times I can offer you..."

I waited with baited breath. She paused, then said "Is eleven-thirty any good?"

I suppose if anyone's going to take the piss, it might as well be the urology department.

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