Remember January when the surgeon put me on the waiting list? He said that at that point there were 6 people in front of me on the list, and that I could go to the secretary’s office at any point when I was passing and find out where I was on the list? It’s not that easy…
We had a couple of days off last week and went to Malaga for the feria. While we were there we thought it was the ideal opportunity to go and ask about the waiting list. So we went to Carlos Haya where the neurosurgery team is based. I asked the secretary where I was on the list and she said it doesn’t work like that. There isn’t a numbered list, you just get called in for surgery when the surgeon decides to call you in. She didn’t seem very helpful, but that was probably because she couldn’t give us what we were asking for and we weren’t sure if that was the case or if we weren’t making it clear enough what we were asking for. Anyway, we weren’t able to get what we went for and that knocked the wind out of our sails a bit. But as we were leaving the hospital we passed the office where I went with the paperwork given to me by the surgeon in order to get on to the waiting list. After waiting for a couple of minutes we saw the admin person responsible for the waiting lists but she wasn’t able to help us either. Once you are entered on to the list, control is handed over to the appropriate department and central admin doesn’t see it. All she knows is when they say “Get the patient in for the pre-op tests”, and she sends the appointment out to the patient.So we left the hospital having drawn a blank. And then Lucinda said let’s go to Hospital Civil, which is where the doctor in charge of the pre-surgical evaluation is based. It was getting close to lunchtime by then so we had to get a move on. The neurology secretary there was much more helpful – she couldn’t tell us anything useful but you could tell she wanted to! By that point we had thought of an alternative question to ask. Rather than asking, “What number am I on the list?”, we decided it might be better to ask, “How many of these operations have they done since January?”. Sneaky, huh? She didn’t have that information, but she said the doctor might. Who wasn’t there that day, and who is only there one or two days a week, and being August very few people are where they should be in any case, but we now have a secretary who we think knows what we want, and who will speak to the doctor on her return, and who will either call us or will ask the doctor to call us. If you think this sounds confusing try doing it all in a foreign language 😀
So there’s actually nothing to report, this post is completely superfluous. I suppose I might have something to report in a week or two, but I might not. But hey, the feria was fun!
(I need that) like a hole in the head 