Is Toronto Western Hospital Functionally Retarded???

After writing University Health Network's CEO, Dr. Robert 'Bob' Bell for help in dealing with their patient relations department, I received this black-berried response:

"thank you for your note. I will refer your concerns to our Patient RelationsDepartment.
Yours truly,
Bob Bell"

The gods must be crazy for letting these doctors work together. The right hand doesn't know what the left ass-cheek is doing!

I mean, you forward the letter to the people who made me write you directly in the first place! In the words of Peter Griffin, "COME AWWWWWWWWN !!!!"

I am some kind of serious pissed. Especially considering I just came back from ANOTHER E.R. visit, this time to St. Joseph's Health Centre (which is wonderful, by the way). There they acted like we weren't the first to go there for a second opinion from UHN. I wish I could say that surprised me. But it did make sense. And now, Craig may very well need surgery... and if that happened to Craig because of the way it was set or casted, I feel badly for the people I'll be hunting down like dogs.

My response to Dr. Bell's letter:

Dear Dr. Bell,

I received your response this morning, thank you for taking the time over the weekend to update us.

However, had you read my entire email you would see I have TRIED to deal with your patient relations department and received nothing but hassle and accusations. This despite the fact that I worked at TWH and had sent things through Ms. Rogers before, it now seems most people at UHN pre-judge their contacts by their job or injury or both. I am a Medical Secretary and was treated as if I should know better than to complain. That is a serious issue. There needs to be some accountabiility, just as in the UHN mission statement; but it seems no one wants to take it.

I'm getting to the end of my patience (forgive the pun) and no matter what happens I will never recommend TWH or UHN to anyone in my life. I will not give my OHIP/insurance dollars to a hospital that has so little regard for people, yet professes to strive for the very best in P.C.C.

It's a blatant contradiction that I have now personally experienced and witnessed on both sides of the table. As an employee, and as a patient.

We have received a new referral to a different fx clinic who seemed to act like we were not the first to leave UHN upset. I will contact you tomorrow afternoon to update you on what our second-opinion finds. Whatever those findings may be.

Should they find the fx is healing properly and was treated properly, I will contact you back to discuss the matter of Dr. Freidman's offering and denial of offering of Oxycontin and Percocet. His denial that he offered these narcotics is very troubling and curious to me.

Furthermore, Dr. Bell, please ask yourself, what does this man and his fiance have to gain by complaining?

I was merely trying to alert your patient relations department to some unsavoury and unsatisfactory treatment (medical and personal). It's not like I'm suing you or even threatened to sue. I just believe that the standards in medicine need to be upheld and that doctors need to take responsibility for the way in which they deal with their patients. I'm sure being in the position you are, you agree with me there.

Sincerely,

Megan Ball