Yes, yes. I didn’t see the same oncologist. I don’t think I saw the same one, I must have seen about six different oncologists over the, the time. And obviously they’re just writing in the notes, in your notes, so I don’t suppose it matters. But continuity of care, I just sort of felt, well, I told them that last time. “If, you’re not the same person, so you don’t remember all that.” So I did sort of feel a bit like a cattle market.
Foolishly, in my ignorance, I thought I was under him [the professor] for the duration. And I wasn’t. And I saw a variety of different professionals. And sometimes, because what happened towards the end was that it was every other three weeks I would see a doctor. And then in between that I wouldn’t see a doctor, I’d just see a nurse and have the treatment. But if I had any issues, then that nurse would feed back to a doctor and I’d get to see them. But sometimes it was so busy, I would actually be sitting on the bed waiting for the drip and the doctor would come to my bed. It wasn’t even in a room on our own in, you know, in confidence. There were other people eavesdropping on that conversation, which wasn’t ideal.
I did sort of feel that once they’d got my decision, they’d sold it to me and that was it, no more input.
What could they do better?
I think they could have warned me and said, “Well, you won’t see me all the time. I’m the main chap, I’ve got a team working under me. Bear with us, you might not see the same team.” Then I would have been prepared for that. But I did sort of feel almost like a second-class citizen because I wasn’t seeing the same chap. Because if you go, if you’re referred, say, let’s say you’re referred for something to do with your ears, you’d see the ENT chap. You usually see them or their understudy, don’t you? And they usually explain, “You’re seeing me because he’s busy or doing operations or whatever.” None of that was ever mentioned. It seemed to be taken as read that I would just get any of them. And rightly or wrongly, I don’t know, but it looked like some of them were quite junior doctors.
