Irish Health System - Ha Ha

josip

I saw a consultant privately in the H***e on Monday. Blood was tested. I rang the hospital today. The results are back. They may have been back before today. As expected, Phlebotomy can't give out the results of the tests, only the GP or consultant can do that. I rang the consultant's secretary. She said she won't see him until Tuesday and can't give out the results before then.

So now I sit waiting for results, which will have an impact on me for the rest of my life, for another 4 days while the results sit in the hospital waiting for the consultant.

Ha bloody ha.

Mr Benevolent

josip wrote: »

I saw a consultant privately in the H***e on Monday. Blood was tested. I rang the hospital today. The results are back. They may have been back before today. As expected, Phlebotomy can't give out the results of the tests, only the GP or consultant can do that. I rang the consultant's secretary. She said she won't see him until Tuesday and can't give out the results before then.

So now I sit waiting for results, which will have an impact on me for the rest of my life, for another 4 days while the results sit in the hospital waiting for the consultant.

Ha bloody ha.

Get her to call your GP tell him the results.

princess-lala

That's pretty common!

shedweller

Its ok. In a few years there will be no public system worth talking about. The private system will take over and we'll be paying into it just like in the US. Then we'll have good healthcare but be broke paying for it.

My name is URL

Hope you get good news, but that is pretty much standard anywhere in the developed world. Secretaries aren't supposed to have access to confidential records let alone give patients their results over the phone.

General General

Did you pay for the test? If so, well.. well, then... then you can still do s.f.a. as whatever the consultant says, or actually whatever the consultant's secretary says is just what you have to put up with.

Unless you're mobbed up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcPgxQkcIVs

You gotta bee on your 'at...

josip

Sorry, it's not good enough.

I understand some concerns about confidentiality but in this case the secretary will retrieve the results herself today. At best by fax. More than likely she'll walk for 10 minutes to get them.

Secondly the secretary had no knowledge that phlebotomy already had the results.

It's not unreasonable to expect blood results to be conveyed electronically. So the consultant should get a copy emailed to him as soon as they're available. He can then call me withing 24 hours with the results at his own convenience.

In reply to one poster who said it'll be better when it's all private, I did go privately and I also paid €70 for the blood test. If I had the same ones done via my GP I'd have them back now and it would only have cost me €30.

fishy fishy

you went to a consultant just to get blood tests - you don't even have to go into your gp for blood tests - the nurse can do it for you. silly billy

josip

General General wrote: »

just what you have to put up with.

Unless you're mobbed up.

The consultants got him in the end too

josip

fishy fishy wrote: »

you went to a consultant just to get blood tests - you don't even have to go into your gp for blood tests - the nurse can do it for you. silly billy

Nope. As part of the consultantion and as a resultof a physical examination, the consultant wanted to check some bloods.

Valetta

If you went private then you can't blame the "Irish Health System".

You paid a private business and are unhappy with the service received.

As with any business, make your complaint directly to them and if not satisfied don't use them again.

Hope the results are good when you do get them.

fishy fishy

get your gp to test the results. the consultant will pass them on to gp - if he/she hasn't already got them on computer she can ask for them for you.

josip

Valetta wrote: »

If you went private then you can't blame the "Irish Health System".

You paid a private business and are unhappy with the service received.

As with any business, make your complaint directly to them and if not satisfied don't use them again.

Hope the results are good when you do get them.

I can understand your point but I thought the Irish Health System was divided into a Public Health System and a Private Health System, both of which operate as the Irish Health System under the auspices of the HSE, in turn, answerable to the Dept. Of Health.

As ever, open to correction on this.

josip

fishy fishy wrote: »

get your gp to test the results.

Not sure what you mean here. The results of the test are already back.

fishy fishy wrote: »

the consultant will pass them on to gp - if he/she hasn't already got them on computer she can ask for them for you.

I've asked the secretary if she can send the results to the referring doctor.
Well, I actually asked her answering machine...
Oh, to be mobbed up.

Penny Dreadful

josip wrote: »

I saw a consultant privately in the H***e on Monday. Blood was tested. I rang the hospital today. The results are back. They may have been back before today. As expected, Phlebotomy can't give out the results of the tests, only the GP or consultant can do that. I rang the consultant's secretary. She said she won't see him until Tuesday and can't give out the results before then.

So now I sit waiting for results, which will have an impact on me for the rest of my life, for another 4 days while the results sit in the hospital waiting for the consultant.

Ha bloody ha.

The secretary may well have access to the results but is not qualified to interpret them. Any questions you may have based on the results she reads out to you cannot be answered by her/him.
Its a legal thing that makes perfect sense to me.

josip

Penny Dreadful wrote: »

The secretary may well have access to the results but is not qualified to interpret them. Any questions you may have based on the results she reads out to you cannot be answered by her/him.
Its a legal thing that makes perfect sense to me.

As I've stated already, I have no problem with that part. I am unhappy that at a time when most people are capable of communicating electronicaly and rapidly, the consultant won't get the results for another 4 days even though they are already back at the hospital.

Hold on, the consultant isn't back until Tuesday? So it's the consultant that the problem is with. The hospital may well have sent the results to him already. Or am I missing something else?

josip

Deleted User wrote: »

Hold on, the consultant isn't back until Tuesday? So it's the consultant that the problem is with. The hospital may well have sent the results to him already. Or am I missing something else?

The consultant rents a suite at the clinic and attends there on a part time basis. The clinic do the blood draws but have to send the bloods to a lab elsewhere to be analysed. The lab has sent the results back to the phlebotomy dept in the clinic. But that is where they will stay until Tuesday.

josip

josip wrote: »

The consultant rents a suite at the clinic and attends there on a part time basis. The clinic do the blood draws but have to send the bloods to a lab elsewhere to be analysed. The lab has sent the results back to the phlebotomy dept in the clinic. But that is where they will stay until Tuesday.

But that's the consultant's fault - not the hospital's. It's not that the pathology department in the hospital can't send the results electronically, it's that your consultant is not there to explain them to you.

General General

josip wrote: »

The consultants got him in the end too

You're right... the only mob worth a **** is the medical one.

Karl Stein

shedweller wrote: »

Its ok. In a few years ... the private system will take over and we'll be paying into it just like in the US. Then we'll have good healthcare but be broke paying for it.

Then people who can afford it will have health care and it won't be all that good.

Michael Lawlor, a professor of economics and health policy Wake Forest University said the cost of U.S. healthcare services is extremely high and average American consumers, even if covered, do not get a greater quantity of healthcare services or even more convenience for the high cost they pay compared to the average developed country.

upi.com/Health_News

josip

Deleted User wrote: »

But that's the consultant's fault - not the hospital's. It's not that the pathology department in the hospital can't send the results electronically, it's that your consultant is not there to explain them to you.

I find it difficult to decide who I think is most responsible for my 4 day wait. Perhaps it is me.

The consultant physically attends that clinic on a part time basis. I knew that in advance. He has a secretary there who is the point of contact and availabale 5 days a week.

I don't think the phlebotomy dept in the clinic can send the results electronically. I have just gotten a reply from the secretary saying that she called the phlebotomy dept for the results and "as soon as they have the fax working again they will send them"

Even if the phlebotomy dept could/would send the results electronically I don't know if the consultant could/would receive them.

Also, the phlebotomy dept already had the results back from the lab. But the secretary was unaware of this. I have experienced this before in other parts of the Health System where in a multi-stage process the patient must monitor the flow of information at all points in the process to ensure there are no delays.

NuckingFacker

Unless it's a three-day tummy bug they're testing you for, chances are you'll still either have it or not have it in four days time.. so chillax the kacks, have a beer and listen to some music. A watched kettle never boils.

Wompa1

I went in on a Friday to get my bloods done from my GP. He arranged the appointment for me, following a different appointment I had with him.

So, I got there ahead of time. Usual Dr. Bullsh1t of having to wait nearly an hour later than the appointment time to be seen.

I get the bloods taken and then I'm told I would need to bring my bloods to the hospital myself because we just missed the courrier for the day. I walked to the doctors because I wanted to avoid the Friday traffic. I also took a half day from work for the appointment.

Anywho. I had to walk for an hour carrying my bloods over to the hospital. 1 week passes, I call and ask about the results, I get told it would be another week. I call the next week and get told unfortunately, some of the blood samples got contaminated. I would need to go in again.

Eventually the bloods worked out, I got a phone call from my GP who broke the news to me that I had a chronic blood disease and also arthritis...I have since learned, doctors should not deliver that news over the phone. He booked an appointment for me with two specialists, one for the blood disease, one for my wrists.

The bloods specialist then told me he could not confirm that I had said disease but that due to my genetics test, I am a carrier, which does not mean I have it. He walked out of the room and left me with a junior doctor who couldn't answer any of my questions and told me to come back in 6 months. To this day, I have no idea if I have this disease or not.

The rheumatoid arthritis specialist told me my X-Rays were not sent over to him and told me he didn't beleive I had arthritis. He said they probably misinterpreted the X-Ray and that the hospitals machine was a bit funky...he gave me two shots into my elbows, which cost me 200 euro each and then sent me on my way. My hands seized up while I was driving home on small country roads, was in agony for the rest of the day and use my hands for work. No warning ahead of time. 2 years later, I still have pain in my wrists.

My brother was the victim of a botched tonsilectemy and my father was paralyzed due to neglicent after care post op. The Irish healt care system hasn't been good to my family!

josip

NuckingFacker wrote: »

Unless it's a three-day tummy bug they're testing you for, chances are you'll still either have it or not have it in four days time.. so chillax the kacks, have a beer and listen to some music. A watched kettle never boils.

Thanks for the advice, but the results will determine whether I can or cannot have that beer among other things. And I won't know that until Tuesday...

josip

Wompa1 wrote: »

I went in on a Friday to get my bloods done from my GP. He arranged the appointment for me, following a different appointment I had with him.

So, I got there ahead of time. Usual Dr. Bullsh1t of having to wait nearly an hour later than the appointment time to be seen.

I get the bloods taken and then I'm told I would need to bring my bloods to the hospital myself because we just missed the courrier for the day. I walked to the doctors because I wanted to avoid the Friday traffic. I also took a half day from work for the appointment.

Anywho. I had to walk for an hour carrying my bloods over to the hospital. 1 week passes, I call and ask about the results, I get told it would be another week. I call the next week and get told unfortunately, some of the blood samples got contaminated. I would need to go in again.

Eventually the bloods worked out, I got a phone call from my GP who broke the news to me that I had a chronic blood disease and also arthritis...I have since learned, doctors should not deliver that news over the phone. He booked an appointment for me with two specialists, one for the blood disease, one for my wrists.

The bloods specialist then told me he could not confirm that I had said disease but that due to my genetics test, I am a carrier, which does not mean I have it. He walked out of the room and left me with a junior doctor who couldn't answer any of my questions and told me to come back in 6 months. To this day, I have no idea if I have this disease or not.

The rheumatoid arthritis specialist told me my X-Rays were not sent over to him and told me he didn't beleive I had arthritis. He said they probably misinterpreted the X-Ray and that the hospitals machine was a bit funky...he gave me two shots into my elbows, which cost me 200 euro each and then sent me on my way. My hands seized up while I was driving home on small country roads, was in agony for the rest of the day and use my hands for work. No warning ahead of time. 2 years later, I still have pain in my wrists.

My brother was the victim of a botched tonsilectemy and my brother was paralyzed due to neglicent after care post op. The Irish healt care system hasn't been good to my family!

:eek: I'll stop my complaining now.

Karl Stein

josip wrote: »

I find it difficult to decide who I think is most responsible for my 4 day wait.

Low supply of healthcare workers and unavoidably high demand is one major problem.

Wompa1

josip wrote: »

:eek: I'll stop my complaining now.

oops. My father, not my brother. He had surgery on his spine, he was his neck was not stabilized after the operation. His head turned while he was out of it and he broke his neck. The hosptial then attempted to cover it up and claimed he had a stroke. He's now partially paralyzed, he regained a lot of mobility but he hasn't worked since 2000, has chronic pain and is a complete wreck.

Son Of A Vidic

Deleted User wrote: »

It's not that the pathology department in the hospital can't send the results electronically, it's that your consultant is not there to explain them to you.

Indeed and the call of the golf course is very strong on Friday afternoons.

Dr Nic

I am sorry to hear this. I hope you get sorted. Can you please campaign with your local TD to encourage investing in health care. The triplication of work and ancient systems means electronically we are in the stone age and these things are not flagged.
I wish you the very best...

Dr Nic

To anyone who has been affected by the irish health care system i am very sorry. Please campaign for more support and investment. Just yesterday i had to porter a very sick man around the whole hospital for an hour as there was no one else to do it. I have to constantly spend hours duplicating work as our paper systems are so inefficient it is actually a laughing stock.
Doctors may be on the golf course as you say but a lot of them ae working 100hours+ with 50 patients on their hands. Can you remember 50 people names youve only met for 6 minutes before, not to mind every single detail about 50 very sick people.
It is impossible