Losing Track Of All My Rescheduled Referrals

Over the last couple of months, I’ve had so many appointments rescheduled, most last minute, that I’m losing track of all my rescheduled referrals. This stress this causes isn’t needed when my mental health is already bad.

 

Because my specialist made five referral requests, plus requests for tests and then add my GP referral requests as well, I’ve had a lot of appointments to keep track of. Almost all of them have been rescheduled, and some of them have been rescheduled, not once, not twice, but three times.

 

To make matters worse, the referrals are all to different hospitals, so I’ve been stuck trying to chase up my various appointments through multiple hospitals using their PALS teams. The problem is, I keep forgetting which ones which, which ones I’m waiting on email replies back from, and which have been changed over the phone: leaving no record. It’s been an extremely stressful and confusing time. But so far, I’ve not missed an appointment yet.

 

 

So many of my referrals have been rescheduled recently that I’m losing track of who I’m chasing up for what. It’s gotten so out of hand, I’m having to contact the hospitals a day or two before the appointment just to make sure I’m still meant to be attending.

 

For one of my appointments, I only found out the day before that it had, in fact, been rescheduled, and I only found that out because I contacted the hospital the day before to see if the appointment still existed.

 

 

That’s because some of my appointments have been rescheduled without me being sent a letter saying they’ve been rescheduled. Like it’s not already hard enough with the constant changes to my appointments.

 

The problem is, I need all these appointments and tests to happen before 26th July when I get to see this specialist again. The waiting list to see this specialist is a whole year.

 

 

One of my appointments was cancelled three days before I was meant to attend. It was then rescheduled for October. Another has been scheduled for June, July, and now August. Some I’ve managed to get rescheduled for before 26th July, because someone no longer needed an appointment. But I’ve also had one that’s been rescheduled for before 26th July after a lot of chasing up my appointments, to suddenly then be rescheduled again last minute until September.

 

The PALS team now seems to be ignoring me and my request to make sure my appointments are rescheduled to before my appointment with my autonomic disorders specialist on 26th July, rather than having it rescheduled to months afterwards.

 

This whole situation sucks because it’ll make my appointment with my specialist less productive. The point of all these appointments and tests was to help the specialist have a better understanding of the scope and reach of my autonomic disorders. Without this more detailed picture built from all these other tests and appointments, the appointment with my specialist is almost pointless.

 

 

It’s already taken the best part of six years to just get to this point. I can’t keep having my life put on hold like this. Waiting close to a year to see that specialist again so that they’ll have all the information from these tests and appointments then is just so frustrating. All I want is answers and a plan to help me manage all my problems so I can improve my quality of life. Stop making me waste years of my life simply waiting.

 

 

It’s not just my hospital referrals being rescheduled. If you’ve read my previous article, you’ll also be aware that my PIP assessment was also rescheduled last minute.

 

It can be really stressful to move everything around to accommodate such changes, so how do you cope when this happens?

 

As always, leave your feedback in the comments section below. Also, feel free to share your experiences in dealing with PALS teams and rescheduled appointments in the comments section below as well. If you want to stay up-to-date with my blog, then sign up for my newsletter below. Alternatively, get push notifications for new articles by clicking the red bell icon in the bottom right corner.

 

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