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I’m back in London
Today. Barts hospital. For my next biologic injection.

Bedford hospital respiratory team suggested I request a review while I’m here. Even although they said X-ray was totally clear. That it turns out was from 5 years ago! Oops. Anyhow…

Lovely Mr Respiratory Consultant had rung me last night. Just to check if I was ok. I can book to see Mr R privately but insurance still not covering it. The reason? GP has not sent the details.

In theory today I was to have my injection get monitored for an hour and all being well can go. supposed to have blood pressure temp oxygen before and after. Well that’s the theory.

The nurse in the clinic asked if I’d had any reactions last time … I started to explain but she just whacked the jab in and said I could go. No monitoring.

I said Bedford had suggested I ask for review. Mmm. No doctors she muttered. Strike day.

She did however suggest I see the ‘ team downstairs’.

Grumpy reception ‘downstairs’ pointed me to nurse Trunchball, from the
the ‘ team’, she said no way. Doctors on strike. We dont do acute. We have patients to see! No review. Nothing to be done. Go home. See your GP.

but, I wheezed … GP told me to request a review here.
Bedford Hospital had also told me to get seen by the specialists…at BARTs.

Hopeless. I just sat there for a bit thinking about what to do

All of a sudden a kerfuffle erupted and there in the midst of Trunchball throwing a wobbler a doctor called my name. A registrar. He been phoned by the striking Consultant, who on a tip off from Mr Respiratory had ordered a review. Despite his striking he’d promised urgent / emergency cover. He had vowed to break the strike if he was needed. He was to be phoned at any time.

Registrar KP ( I didn’t quite catch his name) was utterly magnificent. Bloods. X-rays. Covid tests. Review review. Review. Assess assess assess.

At the moment he reckons I’ve had covid. Thenpneumonia. So more steroids. Admission to hospital if worse. More news as it comes in.

In all of this
1. Doctors breaking strike to help is awesome. Please can Steve Barclay sit round a table and sort this mess out.

2. Trunchball nurses are probably under huge pressure but please don’t take it out on patient. In her imagination …or mine I was the victim she threw round the sky so mad at me for seeing a doctor was she.

3. X ray . that was an electonic appointment by Dr KP. All I had to do was give my name to imaging. They then ushered me straight in. Bingo.

4. Blood tests. Dr KP printed off two labels. An electronic input device accepted my name and in no time my name appeared on a big screen telling me to go to room 2 and bloods were done. Easy.

5. Pharmacy . Dr KP had done the massive load of steroids script electronically. But then patients have to queue to give name to pharmacy along with 50 other tired ill patients. . Then Mr Pharmacy scribbles the name and everyone carefully spells it out, it on a scruffy bit of paper, next step is he gives out a raffle ticket and we sit , in my case, on the floor , waiting for the raffle. After an hour of this I went up to the desk. Said I had another ‘appointment’ and was there a chance I could get the stuff sent or my daughter could pick up later. Turns out they had lost the bit of paper and I was void. Ffs. Eventually it was rediscovered, the steroids produced and along with 50 other patiently waiting patients blinked back tears and wheezed off to a train

5. Dr KP had no means of logging into Bedford hospital nor GP system to get overview. I did however get onto my NHS app which has a list of GP interactions. That I showed him which short circuited his attempts at ‘logging in’ to cyber something web something space.

Why are the systems they operate so absurd The time and motion studies of the past have surely been abandoned for chaos theory.

Can it be possible to unleash better communication cooperation and commitment from all staff so that they can not only overcome their resistance to change but also manage the complexity and high demand for personalised care

‘to evaluate whether and to what extent health information technology applications, including computerized provider order entry, electronic prescribing, and electronic health records, increase efficiency – for example, by helping clinicians perform routine …

“Many experts believe that e-prescribing, a function of an ambulatory computerized provider reduces the incidence of medication errors by ensuring legibility and completeness of the prescription, and by alerting physicians to potential drug interactions and patient allergies. ….t e-prescribing has only a small impact on physician and staff time, and that the safety benefits of e-prescribing will outweigh this potentially minor impact on clinical workflow.