"Bad experience prior to Pacemaker Insertion"

Referencing: a call made to the hospital recently

Regarding: Cardiology pro forma titled "Instructions for Pacemaker Insertion"

This form is sent out prior to the patient having a Pacemaker inserted and tells the patient what to do prior to the procedure.

Most of the form deals with medications that need to be started and stopped.

At the bottom of the first page, under the section titled "Instructions about Medications to Continue Taking" it states the following:

"If you do not have a Cardiologist please call the Contact Centre on 1300 342 255 and ask to speak with a Cardiology Registrar in relation to your procedure." with regard to medications you do not have instructions for.

I tried following this instruction.

1. It seemed the switchboard do not have a clue about where to find a Cardiology Registrar and transfer the call to Outpatients.

2. Staff at Outpatients do not have access to any Registrars or any idea of how to contact one and transfer the call to Cardiology Ward 2.2

3. Staff member at Cardiology Ward 2.2 I feel is officious, condescending and rude. They tell me to talk with my GP - this is not an option because my GP quite rightly refuses to give Cardiology advice because that is the role of the Cardiologist. They keep telling me to read the end part of the form where it says that a nurse will contact me 2 days prior to the procedure. I keep reading back to them the part of the form telling me to ring the hospital but I recall the staff member just keeps telling me that's not how it works.

My first problem is that a Cardiology Registrar advised me to stop taking Amiodorone (a drug used to control heart rate in treatment of atrial fibrillation). This advice given at my heart failure clinic appointment in anticipation of a procedure the following month. I believe the risks and implications of stopping this drug for an extended period are serious, complex, dangerous and require management. As I understand it, one of the effects of stopping the drug is hyper- or hypo-thyroidism. Amiodorone resembles iodine and plugs into the iodine receptors on the thyroid gland. As a consequence a patient on Amiodorone has to take controlled doses of Thyroxine as the thyroid shuts down. Managing this requires frequent blood tests. This is on top of the risk of no longer controlling my atrial fibrillation, which is a life-threatening condition.

Given that the procedure is not now weeks away but months, what am I supposed to do?

My GP is on holiday, and would just tell me to speak with Cardiology at BHH if I could speak with them.

My second problem is with the seemingly ignorant and officious staff member I spoke with.

I hope that there is a recording of the telephone call so that someone in seniority can listen to the call and, I feel, correct their process and attitude.