Thread: Government red tape, or I’m the bunny who’s not writing fiction

You may’ve heard I’m entering hospital again, this time for radiation therapy for thyroid cancer. It's supposed to happen next Friday, May 6th.

What you may not have heard is that I've all but given up on fiction writing.

The good news is that thyroid cancer is easily treated and totally curable. A drink of radioactive iodine (RAI), and that’s generally it.

But before I get to hospital and the magic drink, I need two injections of artificial thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), to make the iodine effective. These injections must be given on the two days prior to entering hospital.

The hospital is located in Brisbane, 150km away.

My local pharmacist has been chasing down supplies of TSH. The manufacturer’s agent had run out and in Operation Desperation asked the hospital pharmacy if they could access their supplies, pick up my TSH from them and deliver it to my local pharmacy.

And that’s when the wheels fell off.

The hospital’s a public hospital. It’s also one of the country’s largest, with a staff of over 7,200. Their pharmacy has a staff of 80, with 5 little Hitlers running the show.

One would imagine it would be a simple process for the hospital pharmacy to dispense my TSH via another pharmacy.

Hahaha.

They have been impossibly obtuse. First, they contacted the nursing consultant in charge of my admission to verify that I in fact existed. She was also asked to obtain confirmation that my local pharmacist in fact existed, and had to phone me to obtain his details.

That all happened way back on April 20th.

Then the hospital pharmacy wanted a faxed copy of the original prescription, followed by the real thing, mailed to them, before they would lift a finger.

Meanwhile, the day of my hospitalisation draws closer.

Today, Saturday 30th, ten days later, I phoned my pharmacist to find out if the TSH had been delivered.

Ten days. Okay, Easter happened. Five business days.

The TSH still has not been delivered.

With next Monday yet another effing local holiday, it’s scheduled to arrive Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.

But my appointment with the local doctor to administer the first of these injections is also Wednesday morning. The injections have to be 24 hours apart, with the second one given 24 hours before I have my drink of RAI in hospital on Friday.

The window between latest promised delivery and appointment time is 3 hours.

If there’re any more delays, or if there’s a slip-up of any type, my hospital visit gets cancelled and I go back to the bottom of the list.

All because of Government red tape and little Hitlers.

Is it any wonder my fiction writing has fizzled out? No one is going to feel creative with a worry like this on their mind. Maybe I should just go out and get

Talk about cutting it fine? Ech, the joys of bureaucracy...

That drink sounds like a good plan, though... maybe not such a good idea if there's a chance you'll be ingesting radioactive liquids shortly after.

Never mind about the writing, Ox. Whether you do or don't doesn't really add up to a hill of beans unless the act of writing is all that keeps you alive or something. I figure you've got bigger things to worry about than stories.

In the UK, people have died because of things like this. I remember one guy having his operation, to remove a cancerous tumour, cancelled thirteen times over a year; when they finally went to do it, it was too large to remove - dead man.

One of the few good things the last government did was ban hospitals from repeatedly postponing operations (I think). I think they're allowed to do it just once. It still won't be perfect, but it's better.

Time to compose a polite, precise piece on the system propounded by the pharmacy and its effect on the patient's peace of mind I feel; copies to each of the five dept heads at the pharmacy, your consultant, your GP, your parliamentary representative, heads of local parties that didn't get elected, the state governor, and whoever is in overall charge at the hospital. Oh, and your local and national newspapers, and there might be some web sites that would take it.