Quote:
Originally Posted by Slava
Well here’s one. My wife has an issue and booked a doctors appointment. They were pretty sure they knew the issue and sent her to a specialist. Makes sense. The specialist does a test, confirms the issue and says “here’s what you should do for treatment”. The catch is, now my wife has to book another time with the family doctor, to get a referral for this treatment, and then get the treatment. It’s just wasting everyone’s time. Similar things happen with prescriptions for all kinds of ongoing things. You can get some doctors to issue a renewal, but others make you go in and have an appointment.
To me, the issue here is pretty simple to change. Less of these appointments means more times available for people who are actually in need of seeing doctors.
We had another issue in the hospital this year, where we waited for a report from radiology. It took hours for the report, and I was within earshot of the nurses desk/station. A significant hold up was the nurse called radiology and the radiologist wouldn’t report to her. Instead the doctor from ER had to call and speak to the radiologist directly…to report that it was all clear! I understand that approach of there’s something complex or whatever. But those kinds of delays are just plain ridiculous. Meanwhile, a bed is taken and held up while people are sitting in the waiting room.
I’m just a layman, but there’s no way I’m the only one with these kinds of stories. There are obviously issues in the structures within AHS. I had another example but decided I don’t want to get into it on a public site.
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I agree some of the systems seem ridiculous, but the things you're describing are done for a reason I assume. Would it be better for the specialist to refer? That takes time away from the specialist so then you run into the issue of the specialist wait times increasing. So you solve one problem but create another. I don't know how long referrals take maybe they are very quick or maybe there's a decent amount of data entry etc. Like you I'm also just a layman, I certainly don't know the ins and outs.
Your second example seems odd to me. If the radiologist won't ever report to the nurse why would she be calling? Is there a reason the radiologist wanted to speak to the doctor in this case even though it's all clear? Obviously I'm not asking you to answer that but is it a situation where radiologists never report to nurses or only report to doctors when they have questions or additional info to give.
I agree with you that there seems to be a lot of small things that could be improved but it's also often more complicated than what you or I see. HCWs need to be the ones to point out areas we can improve and I'm sure there are lots, but the people in charge need to listen and they aren't.
The biggest issue is still not enough HCWs. It's far and away the biggest issue and our government is not helping that.