Moving on...

10th April 2013... I would never have anticipated that one appointment would bring so many changes to my care and probably to my life. I was transferred to the NHS by my haemophilia consultant as I have a bleeding disorder that cannot be fully looked after in the private sector.

When I arrived at the clinic on, my usual consultant hadn't yet arrived, and my notes were instead picked up by a different consultant (who turns out to be one of my lecturers), who told me he'd be with me shortly. When I was called in, we talked about my surgery and about medical school, when someone knocked at the door. I was surprised to see my usual consultant in the doorway, who noticed me straight away and sat down to chat. The three of us discussed what had happened during my previous admissions, which led my doctors to decide that I wasn't adequately covered for the bleeding problem. They decided that I should be moved out of the private sector, and into the NHS, to receive all my care at the haemophilia centre, so if I needed any more surgery, they could co-ordinate things from the haemostasis point of view.

They said it'd be around a month until I got to see the plastic surgeon, which felt like such a long time since appointments can be booked for the same week in the private sector. However, I was lucky that on my way home, my consultant phoned to tell me that the plastics team would be able to see me the following day. Unfortunately, I had a mandatory GP placement to attend and a public health presentation to make, but my consultant insisted that I attend the appointment and therefore contacted the placement directly to inform them of the situation. 

I saw the new doctors on the Thursday, who said that I should also be seen by the congenital hand anomalies clinic, and that I'm probably going to need another operation. My appointment with the new clinic is on Thursday. It is with mixed feelings that I move on, but I know that I can always see my old surgeons any time, given the incentive that the private sector is run on. I'm being treated like a colleague, and have been told on more than one occasion that I should have expected much more from the private sector than I got. Haemophilia have really looked after me so well and treated me so much better than I've been treated by so many people in the past. I can't wait to begin my new journey, but after four years, it's going to be hard to move on.