UK hospitals never think of one thing we cancer patients could really do without | UK | News

When was the last time someone asked you if your diarrhea was the consistency of porridge while you were sitting on the bus? If your answer is ‘never’, you are one of the lucky ones who have not had an NHS telephone consultation at a time that is convenient for you as a patient. In theory, telephone appointments are a good idea for patients because they allow you to speak to a medical professional without having to go to hospital or GP surgery.

So when have they ever worked this way for patients? When did a doctor call at the time specified in the appointment? Don’t they realize that patients have lives to lead and don’t have time to linger for a call that will never come? As an incurable bowel cancer patient, I think my favorite case so far was about six months into my treatment.

When the doctor called me the next day to talk about side effects and whether I was eligible for chemotherapy, he asked why I didn’t seem to be waiting for his call.

I was in an art gallery at the time, looking at inspiring works from years ago. When I called him outside the exhibition, near the restrooms, I told him that I was waiting to hear from him, but it was seven hours ago.

A hospital wouldn’t make a patient wait seven hours for a scheduled meeting; So why is it acceptable to make an appointment by phone?

And if appointments are supposed to benefit the patient, why can’t the patient choose what’s best for him or her?

I’m writing this on the bus after having blood tests at the hospital, knowing that at any moment someone from my cancer medical team will be calling. I won’t be able to hear everything they say, but I know they will ask the question I asked at the beginning of this article. And they’ll want an answer while I’m sitting next to a stranger on my way to the supermarket.

Because I wanted to avoid such a scenario, and because there was only an hour difference between my blood tests and phone calls, I asked if my doctor’s appointment could be changed to an in-person one.

I wasn’t optimistic because my “world-leading” cancer hospital wasn’t very good at putting patients at the center of treatment. And so, unsurprisingly, the computer said no.

By computer I mean my medical team. I received a message saying: “The clinic team said they would call back in the afternoon if you were not home by the time they called.”

Do you really think this is good enough? I don’t think so.

I was once told that the NHS views telephone appointments as the same as face-to-face appointments, meaning they should take the same amount of time and benefit the patient. And most importantly, the patient must decide which one to have.

But my hospital never considers how embarrassing it would be to discuss a patient’s personal issues on public transportation.

And unfortunately, I know my hospital is not alone in this. In a world that is increasingly eliminating the face-to-face aspects of modern life, from self-service payments to seemingly everything being a customer service chatbot rather than a real person, all NHS hospitals must ensure the patient is still put first.