"Over servicing and affecting health"

I had surgery 5 months ago. I am being constantly sent outpatient appointments for various departments and places that I believe are unnecessary. It is as often as every second week they are telling me I must travel to them from the country for appointments. They continually say that the appointments must be face to face. 

Today was another of the, in my opinion, unnecessary demands from them and their apparent refusal to accept that I am not just next door and cannot get there whenever they want.  I advised them I could not attend because I already had other appointments (for treatments), and also was unable to get transport to get there.

It is not always possible to get support workers to take you on NDIS which they have been told of and claim to understand. It was cancelled by phone and also online. They rang later to say that I should have gone anyway because they did not accept the cancellation. They tried to tell me I would have to go in person for an appointment in the next couple of weeks, but seemingly refuse to say why they will not do it by telehealth. The call was from a registrar that said every appointment must be in person. But could not say why. They also said that they cannot do appointments on one day because the appointment time is not actually an appointment, but just a cattle call when everyone is told to be there.

I am disabled, live in the country, and have no transport of my own to get there. It was suggested that I use taxis which are at a cost of around $285 each way. I know that because they kicked me out after surgery having said transports home was arranged, and they took ,etp the front door and told storing a taxi. I then found I had to pay it myself from my pension.

I believe that these appointments are not anything that cannot be done by telehealth as it is just the doctors (usually just a registrar I believe), apparently having an open house so all comers can have a look at you, and seemingly socialising with other staff while you are in the room with them.

They also have told me that they have planned to do cosmetic procedures that I do not want and have told them so, but they keep saying I have to go and sign the papers and set a date. Refusing appointments is not accepted.

They also refer to totally irrelevant places.  They refused to accept that the cost of their demands is too much in terms of money, time, and also on my health. I should not be having to get treatment for conditions caused by their, in my opinion, unreasonable demands. 

I keep getting told that I should go to their appointments that, I believe, do nothing rather than appointments where I am getting treatment for pre existing conditions. I recall I was told that going to see them was more important than attending physiotherapy and specialists actually treating conditions. 

Part of the treatments I am needing are from the effects of what they did, but never warned me about. I was told that they knew that the problems I now have would happen, but they cannot remember to tell everyone everything.

Between them, people they are expecting me to go to, and other medical appointments (which are actually necessary for treatment, those not for treatment being done by telehealth even local ones) I ended up with 20 appointments in 35 days. Definitely over servicing in my opinion. They claim that it is a team of different departments is the reason I am being constantly told to go there. Except, I think that if they really were a team they should be able to organise appointments all in one or at the very least share their information with each other, as they are all looking at one small area and should have access to the same notes.

I think that a hospital should be able to understand that their over servicing and unrealistic expectations, in my opinion, cause worse health outcomes. I now know why I am hearing of so many people rejecting medical care. I am on the verge of doing that too due to this hospital.