Sorry about your situation Cyfr, but I can say that it is no surprise. The ridiculous targets set by government have patients ushered in and out of hospital within the time frame but nothing really gets done. If you are not considered to be an urgent or emergency case then you could be pushed from pillar to post for years, but the targets will be met because you have been seen within the timeframe.
This is what our government call 'modernisation' and from a staff point of view it is galling to see more managers and admin staff appointed in order to meet these targets and less nurses and doctors to actually sort out the patients. There is another reason why the NHS will never move forward and that is 'meetings.'
There is more time wasted at pointless meetings in the NHS than anywhere else on Earth. Every new target, protocol or guideline sparks a plethora of meetings where managers will attempt to filter down the new information to the staff on the shop floor. This usually involves excessive paperwork for clinical staff, this paperwork usually contains loads of pointless tick boxes for various statistics. Clinical staff have to then waste more patient time filling these in, therefore the quality of patient's visits are reduced. Things are rarely resolved at these meetings so they are followed up by more meetings until ultimately we are told that the original meeting gave us misinformation and we have all been doing it wrong for months. Therefore another meeting is called (do you get my drift?
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This is progress and modernisation and according to government, meets patient's needs!!!!!! I have yet to meet a patient who wants to travel 20 miles to a big hospital in order to receive care. Most would rather be treat locally by staff who have the time and resources to care for them properly. Maybe I am cynical after 20 years working in the NHS but Patricial Hewitt can claim that the NHS needs to 'modernise' in this way until she is blue in the face but I do not know one nurse or midwife who supports her claim.
The reason that patients such as yourself stay in the system so long is down to Mis-modernisation, mismanagement and meetings and with every change of government it becomes worse.