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Need to think ahead next time you break your leg
• EVERYBODY has heard a Royal Free Hospital story. Here’s my experience.
On October 1 I broke my leg in two places.
The ambulance crew did a good job. They got me into A&E where I received some excellent service.
Three quick X-rays were followed by a good plaster job on my broken leg by their first-class plaster technician.
For the next six weeks I was housebound and looking forward to the plaster coming off.
A month and a half later, on November 13, the Royal Free orthopaedic consultant looked at the X-rays and said it was time to remove the cast.
He said “your leg will be fairly stiff, and you will need physiotherapy”.
He gave me a referral slip to be handed in to the physiotherapy department and said the physiotherapy will start next week.
As I was unable to walk, a kindly orthopaedic assistant hand-delivered my referral slip to the physiotherapy department. I phoned the next day to confirm an appointment. They said they had no record of me or any referral slip.
They suggested I go get another referral slip. No easy task!
With some difficulty, from home, and by phone, I managed to arrange for a second referral slip, from the consultant, to be hand-delivered to the physiotherapy department.
The next day, once again, I phoned the physiotherapy department to confirm an appointment. And again, they said they had no referral slip and no record of me. They said try calling back the next day.
The next day it was the same story. So I refused to get off the phone until something was done.
Then miraculously, 10 minutes later, my referral slip was found. But the nightmare got worse.
They informed me that all the physiotherapy appointments were fully booked up until the end of December. Six or seven weeks away. And that was that.
This now means, for another month and a half, regardless of what their consultant said, I can get no help or guidance, and no questions answered about how I can best help myself in trying to get safely mobile and moving.
What a Kafka-esque farce!
My advice for anyone going to the Royal Free Hospital with a broken leg, is immediately after breaking your leg and getting the leg plastered, go right around to the physio department and book the earliest appointment.
This should then coincide with the approximate time, two months later, when your plaster comes off, and you are most in need of physiotherapy.
K Vaughan
Parkhill Road, NW3 |
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