• Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
  • We seem to be having technical difficulties with new user accounts. If you are trying to register please check your Spam or Junk folder for your confirmation email. If you still haven't received a confirmation email, please reach out to our support inbox: support.forum@diabetes.org.uk

My eyes have been cured!

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
AJLang

AJLang

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Well you would think that they have if you read the letter that has just been sent to my GP by the eye doctor who I recently saw at the NHS hospital. He claims that there is "no clinically significant macular oedema" even though a) I've previously been told by the consultant that it can't be cured and b) I can't xxxxxx read anything with my left eye AND he has written that I have "ocular hypertension" when I most definitely have glaucoma AND he hasn't recorded the eye pressure even thought it had gone up. His job title is "Ocuplastic Fellow" How on earth is he allowed to comment on my retina and glaucoma. I'm fuming and very upset.
 
Damn! I got all excited there for a minute thinking you could see properly again, only to find out it's some wazzock spouting tripe. What did your doctor say, or was it unprintable?
 
That has happened to me with something else. I went to my doctor withthe letter for clarifcation, it turned out they had got the wrong person, the person who the letter should have gone to has a VERY similar name.
 
I now just don't trust anything that he said about my eyes. I haven't spoken to my GP. I don't have much money because of leaving work but I'm trying to find out if I can have a private appointment with the proper specialist but goodness knows how much that will cost if I need things doing/tests done - I know that it's c.?200 just for a check-up. It just seems so unfair. I did think about complaining but what's the point.............
 
He hasn't mistaken me for someone else because other information about my eyes is correct.
 
AJLang said:
I now just don't trust anything that he said about my eyes. I haven't spoken to my GP. I don't have much money because of leaving work but I'm trying to find out if I can have a private appointment with the proper specialist but goodness knows how much that will cost if I need things doing/tests done - I know that it's c.?200 just for a check-up. It just seems so unfair. I did think about complaining but what's the point.............
Click to expand...

I think it's worth clarifying to find out how he came to those conclusions Amanda, if only for the sake of other potential patients who may not know as much about their actual condition than you.
 
You should definitely talk to your GP at least as a starting point, perhaps he can explain what the specialist is saying in terms everyone can understand. If the doctor thinks the letter is wrong, then you can take it further by (one of you) writing to the clinic and asking for a second opinion, everyone is entitled to that. Actually, you could request a second opinion anyway.
 
I'm feeling a bit more rational now. I'm going to take that letter to the private consultant, with my previous letters that have listed diagnoses, and ask him for his view about why this time two incorrect diagnoses have been written. I will then ask his opinion as to whether he thinks this needs to be informally or formally reported back to the hospital - his NHS practice is the same as mine. This won't be the first time that I've had an incorrect eye diagnosis and if I hadn't gone privately back then I could have lost my sight due to closed angle glaucoma - it was only the specialist who spotted the problem and arranged urgent surgery. Also. several years ago for two or three years a variety of different doctors commented on the macula in my left eye but no-one did anything until it was too late and not once during that time was I seen by the retinal consultant.
 
Oh Bleep! :( I got really excited then...

(our posts got crossed so editing this one! 🙂 )
Your plan sounds good to me, maybe there has been a muddle up of sorts after all? If you do go for a second opinion I can recomend the docs at BMEC, they do collectively seem to know their stuff & compared to my old hospital are Brilliant at explaining things. You have the right to a second opinion within the nhs so shouldn't have to pay I think...but when I needed one quite urgently (before my care was moved to BMEC) I saw the doc privately & I think from memory it was ?175. Best of luck & big hugs to you...don't let the muppets wind you up. Xxxx
 
AlisonM said:
You should definitely talk to your GP at least as a starting point, perhaps he can explain what the specialist is saying in terms everyone can understand. If the doctor thinks the letter is wrong, then you can take it further by (one of you) writing to the clinic and asking for a second opinion, everyone is entitled to that. Actually, you could request a second opinion anyway.
Click to expand...
Thanks Alison but I definitely know that the eye doctor is wrong with what he has written and having spent many years being a patient of the eye department know the different terminology and what he has written is wrong. I will ask the private consultant for a second opinion and take it from there - the private specialist is also one of the two diabetic eye consultants at the NHS hospital and is very thorough. He was the only one who arranged the right tests for me after the retinal vein occlusion and was very thorough and professional.
 
Thanks Twitchy xx Sorry to get your hopes up. Shame that he wasn't right I would love to not have any eye problems as he has suggested.
 
I've left a message for the RNIB eye health team to phone me to go through the letter with me
 
I just phoned the glaucoma association and they said that I should definitely not be told that it is ocular hypertension when I have glaucoma
 
I phoned the GPs surgery and explained about the letter and asked what I should do. I was rather surprised when they said to phone the hospital to get an amended letter sent ie just get them to change the letter
This is nearly as bad as the time two years ago one when the diabetic consultant said that I had kidney damage because he had misread the results!

How many mistakes are being made in the NHS??!!!!!
 
I was excited for you when I saw the title!

What an idiot person! So he looked at your eyes & didn't see a problem? Maybe he needs glasses....
 
Thanks Laura sorry about the heading I was just feeling extremely sarcastic towards the doctor when I wrote it. The irony was that I was told by the consultant last year that my sight will never improve which is why I am so reliant on the doctors getting it right to minimise further damage.
 
Aw, aj, I thought out had got better for you too nhs do make alot of mistakes many of which I'm sure go un noticed until greater damage is done. Glad you've spoke to someone to get it corrected, just hope they do it and put better procedures in place, live in hope 🙂
 
Thank you Brett🙂
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top