Paphos Life

Still under investigation following an unexplained incident about 8 weeks ago I was referred to see an ENT doctor and later a Neurologist.

This post is about the various systems for patients actually seeing the doctor. In both cases a date and time of appointment were given. €6 Duly paid at Reception and labels issued.

ENT SPECIALIST

Duly arrived for my appointment at 11.30 am and noticed the list of patients seeing the doctor that session beside the office door.

Patients were seen in order according to the time of their appointment. I was actually seen about 40 minutes later.

NEUROLOGIST

Duly arrived for my appointment at 08.30 am. No list of patients seeing the doctor that session.

Patients were seen according to the time they arrive in the department, regardless of the appointment time.

So even though in theory I was the first patient as the doctor started the session at 08.30 am, there were 4 patients seen before me because they had arrived earlier than me. Another doctor explained that this was the system they used. Decided no point in telling him about the ENT system as I was just relieved to get in and actually have the consultation. I saw him at 09:15 am and left just before 10:00 am. Not all that time was spent on me, rather trying to find the relevant areas on the Gesy website to enter diagnosis and requests for various tests.

DERMATOLOGIST

Not seen a Dermatologist for many years, but when the labels were printed out at Reception a number was allocated and the patients were seen in numerical order.

Two positive comments I have to make about the doctors:

1. They take their time to ensure they get all the necessary information, carry out preliminary tests and order others as necessary.

2. They are prepared to find the root cause of a problem and not tell me 'We cannot find anything so you will have to live with it' and then refer me to the next doctor in a related speciality to see if the problem can be found there.

Just wondered what happens when a patient sees a CARDIOLOGIST or ORTHOPAEDIC doctor and various other specialities.

I have seen a cardiologist under the Gesy System... I had an appointment time and I paid my 6 euros upon registering..
I waited outside the consultants door with many other people... I have no idea what order people were seen in, but it matters little as i was seen to in a very good manner

There has been a subtle change to the procedure for seeing a specialist at the Paphos General. This came into being on 1st September and has caused a lot of problems when registering at the main desk to get your strip of stickers, to the extent that queues are once again tailing back to beyond the desk where you get the stamps to pay for blood tests etc.

Notwithstanding that you might have an appointment to see a specialist you must now have a referral to that specialist from your GP. People (including myself) are turning up at main registration expecting to pick up the strip of stickers and are being told to go and see the GP to get a referral, so they do so, without an appointment, which causes further delays both at the GP waiting area and when they return to the front of the queue at the main registration.

So if you are going to see a specialist make sure you have a referral from your GP in advance.

You can get referrals for more than one specialist from the GP on one visit, so you just need to plan ahead.

Things will sort out over the next few weeks and get back to normal, I am sure. It's just teething problems, until they change things all over again.

Having read this I think I had better check at the hospital what (if anything) I need to do..
I have a slip of paper from the heart consultant to say I need 2 appointments to see him.
I have an appointment card with the times and dates on...
But it now seems that I need a letter from someone.. My GP is not one at the hospital ..

I had an appointment last week with my GP ( same as yours Trev )
and she gave me a referral for both the chest clinic and Cardiologist at General.
I already had an appointment date and time with Chest clinic, just needed the referral.

Thanks for that info Brian.. It is a bit of a pain though when i already have an appointment card with date and time on it.. X Two..

trevnhil wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2019 7:48 pm Thanks for that info Brian.. It is a bit of a pain though when i already have an appointment card with date and time on it.. X Two..

That's what I had and I thought a referral was not required, but I was wrong.

It is good to learn of these things on the forum.. I have about 5 weeks before my appointment so plenty of time to check things out and get a letter.