Share review of Victoria Hospital

Victoria Hospital 2016-04-18 Person 2 5 0

I was sent a letter with two appointments for the same day, the first was a CT Scan at 11.00 am and requested that I attended at 10.30 am, the second was for a Cystoscopy in the Urology Dept., at 01.00 pm. My Wife and myself did as we were asked and arrived for the CT Scan at 10.30 am, only to be informed that the person who had sent out the appointment had done so without checking with the CT Scan Staff and that they could not do my scan on that day. To say we were annoyed would be an understatement, so we went to the Urology in the hope that they might be able to bring their appointment forward but of course they could not. I asked if I could change the dates for both treatments but none of the options available were any better than having my Cystoscopy done on the set date and coming back on another day for the CT Scan, so that is what I settled for. We had no option but to stay at the Hospital as it was a cold and windy day and we could not go back home as we live in St. Annes and it would not have been worth it, so we just sat around in the main entry. We went to the Urology Dept., just before 01.00 pm just in time to be told that they were running two hours behind and once again we were by this time very annoyed as we had no option except to wait. When I finally did get in for my cystoscopy, it seemed to me to have been a waste of time as they could not get the camera all the way down as far as they wanted, this was because I have an artificial urinary sphincter that I had fitted at Salford Royal Hospital. Both my GP and myself had mentioned to the Staff that I had this as there is a special way it has to be deactivated for something like this or in case I need to be catheterized but they did not take any notice and tried to push it through the cuff whilst it was still closed, which did cause me some discomfort. We finally arrived back at home at 04.00 pm after arriving at the Hospital for 10,30 am. My first experience of Hospitals was when I had my Radical Prostatectomy operation for Prostate Cancer at St. James' Hospital in Leeds, everything here went well before, during and for a long time after my operation and I can only say it was all excellent. My second experience was when I went to Royal Preston Hospital for radical radio-therapy a few years later and once again everything went well before, during and after and it was also excellent. My first experience with Blackpool Victoria Hospital was some years after that when the urologist there told me I needed a bladder-neck incision, which I duly had on his recommendation after which I was left totally incontinent, hence the need for the sphincter replacement. I was treated badly following this operation and was sent home late at night, also the District Nurses had not been informed and it was some days before they even came, my first follow-up appointment was several months in the future and my GP had to send several letters to the Hospital to get this appointment expedited. When I did get to see the Urologist all he could do was to refer me to Salford Royal Hospital to see if they could fit me with an artificial sphincter, which they did and once again everything went well before, during and after, the follow -up from my operation was also excellent, so I can only also describe this Hospital as excellent in my experience. I do not know why I seem to have such a problem with Blackpool Hospital but it appears that each time I have done, something has gone wrong, so I hope you can understand my unease with my treatment and also our anger.