The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing

Generally speaking, Vicki's 2nd hospital stay has been without major incident, which is a big improvement on last time. However yesterday and today have both highlighted why the NHS often has a bad name. No clinical risks this time, but quite irritating none-the-less.

Yesterday Vicki needed an ultrasound scan on her liver and stomach. This was due at 2:00 and as this time approached it became clear that she wouldn't be able to go as she was still hooked to the infernal machine! So one of the nurses rang down to the Radiography department to let them know that Vicki was going to be late and discovered that Vicki wasn't even booked in. OK, these things happen, but when we arrived at about 3:00, we were told that they still didn't have Vicki booked in, they were very busy and could Vicki be seen as an out-patient!

Well no, not really I insisted. Then one of the radiographers came out and made the same request. So once again, I had to insist, and state that as we were 40 miles away, coming back as an out-patient wasn't really practical! So they put us to the back of the queue and we waiting a further hour or so to be seen.

Today, Vicki needed to go to the Glenfield for an Echo on her heart. The ward arranged for an ambulance to take us there. This arrived an hour early, meaning that Vicki missed her lunch. They also had no record of a request for a carer to go as well, so they had to check before I was allowed along too. Upon arrival at the Glenfield, the ambulance crew took us to the wrong department because their paperwork was incorrect. Upon arrival at said wrong department, the receptionist seemed baffled to be told that we had arrived for an "Echo", even though above her window it clearly said "book in here for ECG". Can someone remind me what ECG stands for? She even sent us on a wild goose chase down a corridor which landed us back at her window a few minutes later. This time she actually bothered to look up on her computer where we were supposed to be. "Computer says no". When we arrived at the correct department, we were seen immediately, and once Vicki had been seen, we enquired as to the whereabouts of our transport back. 2 hours later it arrived. TWO HOURS! That was mind numbingly boring and frustrating.

On arrival at Radiology yesterday, and Children's Outpatients today, both Receptionists asked "did we have our letters?" Well no, we weren't given letters, Vicki is an In-Patient, sent here for tests by her consultant. For some inexplicable reason he didn't see it fit to write a letter and give it so us for presentation at the next incompetent department's desk that we came across. Presumably this scenario has never occurred before, or so you would think.

Trouble is, each part of the hospital is largely autonomous from the others, and no-one seems to have overall responsibility for the patient's holistic experience. Individual elements are often excellent, but sadly in this case, the sum of the parts is less than the sum of the whole. A little communication wouldn't go amiss methinks. You couldn't make it up, could you.