I have gone to this confusing set up we call a hospital twice now, to get an xray and a ct scan done because of my current physical problems. The first time, I was informed that the radiology department is not open on weekends…
The second time, I had to deal with a very bitchy person telling me the referral I had from my doctor was useless, and they could not perform either of my desperately needed scans. This is beginning to be more of a piss off than I ever anticipated. I walk over there in dire straights of pain because of the compressed discs in my back, only to be confronted with excuses again and again.
I am past the point of fed up with our shitty health care here. I need these tests performed, because I need proof of my illness to find out what kind of job I can do pain free to survive! Not to mention the rent in this city is massively overpriced. No rush! I can live on nothing! Assholes. —Anon
This article appears in Jun 3-9, 2010.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t x-rays, CT scans and other diagnostic tests done on an appointment basis? I.e. you don’t just show up and ask for one, you wait until your scheduled appointment time?
Who just shows up at the hospital – on the weekend, no less! – and expects a CT scan???
Do yourself a favour, OP – call your doctor’s office again and have them schedule you an APPOINTMENT.
Yes I think you do need an appointment unless you’re dying right there or something…there are many, many, many, manyyy others who also desperately need tests and scans done. That’s just how it is, unless you want to sell you body to pay for it all in the States. Which, I doubt you can do since you say you think your rent is too much.
Yes, you need an appointment.
I didn’t need an appointment for the last x-ray I had which was only a couple months ago.
just took my paper and walked in… changed, ray’d, and left.
ct scans… I have no sweet clue.
I had a ct scan about 18 mos ago and I most definitely needed an appointment. My dr’s office made the referral and I got the appointment about 3 wks later.
My darling hub-unit has been bounced back and forth from doctors to specialists to tests (with 12-18 month gaps between tests and consultation) for five years – they still have not diagnosed his condition and he has now progressed from a cane to a walker – we both know deep down that he’ll eventually need a wheelchair. Neither the doctors or specialists seem willing to listen to him or care about the immense pain he’s in – one neurologist told him to just ‘deal with it’. All we know is that it’s not MS or ALS – it is nerve related but so far no one has given us any idea what it could be. The health care in this province can be excellent if you’re on death’s door, otherwise, they’ll leave you waiting until you’re covered in cobwebs.
if you go to emerg., you can get in fairly quick,with no previous appt., but if you go in off the street, looking for shit, well? and yes, as someone pointed out, you normally have to be given a time and date to go for those. hey everyone, remember about 25 years ago, before all the computerized input shit we have to go thru there, how fast you were in and out. i had a cracked head on time, in and taken careof, in about 20 minutes. woman goes in for vaginal bleeding last year, she sits there for over 18 fucking hours, how the fuck come?
“i had a cracked head on(sic) time”
finally the truth comes out!
Ok, I agree our health care system has its flaws.
However, a referral does not mean an automatic appointment or the ability to just walk in and get the tests needed.
Perhaps try picking up the phone and calling before you make the trek to the hospital. Ask if they have an appointment available for you. You can’t just waltz in for something that requires an appointment.
…When I was at the emerg to get my foot checked last week, there was this girl there that had been there only seconds before me who “thought that she might have sprained her foot” even though it didn’t really hurt, and one of the doctors there she just happened to know, so the doctor did her a favour and sent her to x-rays right away without even being examined first. And this was at night. So, I guess you don’t always need an appointment.
You don’t need an appointment for an x-ray (I’ve had so many over the past few years I’m surprised I don’t glow in the dark, heh), but unless you go into emerg with an actual emergency, you have to go M-F during normal open hours.
As for a CT scan, you need an appointment. My dad waited a month and a half for his CT scan to see if he had CANCEROUS lesions on his lungs (non smoker, kthx, bitches), so be prepared for a hefty wait time, OP.
Did you have an appointment? Or did you just show up? Your bitch makes it sound like you just showed up for the CT scan. Plus, the requisition for the x ray is a standard capital health form and all the information on operating times at the various hospitals is clearly displayed on the back.
@ happygolucky– Yes, I realize I need an appointment for a CT scan…that’s what I was trying to do. I don’t have a doctor here in Halifax yet, my doctor is in Pictou County. He gave me a referral on paper, the hospital here said to either take it down or fax it, so I went down, and the woman bitched about how it wasn’t filled out to their expectations, etc. She refused to call my doctor and obtain the information. The fact that my doctor apparently didn’t fill out the form correctly is not my fault. And X-Rays are on a walk in basis. Until 3pm only. The point I am trying to make is every time I go to try and get something done I get screwed around, and I’m sick of it. Thank you for your corrections, but I am not a moron, I’m just sick of bullshit.