Just over two years ago I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and following all the usual procedures I had a prostatectomy. A few weeks later I had a phone call from a specialist nurse to ask if I would be interested in taking part in new treatment trials that were taking place and I said yes. A few weeks later I got an appointment to see an oncologist. When I saw the oncologist she asked me when I had the operation, and when I said “two months ago”, she said “Oh it’s too late – it needs to start within six weeks!”  What a waste of everybody’s time.

About six months later my PSA started going up so it was decided I would have radio therapy. After a few weeks I heard nothing so I rang the specialist nurse and got the usual message ‘please leave your number and I’ll get back to you’. Well I did and she didn’t! I tried again a few days later with the same result. I got in touch with another specialist nurse who was most apologetic and did what I can only call a cover up job. I did get my appointment pretty quickly then.

After I had seen the oncologist I was told to report to my surgery in three weeks time to have hormone injections and the hospital would be sending a letter to my GP. Of course when I eventually went to the surgery they had no letter. It took my surgery two days of phoning the hospital to get the required information I have nothing but praise for the actual treatment I have received but when you are suffering from a life threatening disease you can do without having to phone around to find out whats going on. End of moan…..Thank you NHS !