NHS Consultant appointment cancelled/delayed 4x

fluffnutter

Take comfort in the fact that they don't think you're dying.

Herongull

ljonski wrote: »

This situation arose just after the war when the Atlee Government in order to get the NHS through the statute books had to placate the Doctors,by allowing them to have a certain amount of hours in the working week in Private practice. Otherwise it is doubtful whether there would have agreed to work in the NHS.

It is time these lucrative hours were curtailed, but it certainly won't be happening in the foreseeable future!

This is not correct. Most consultants do private work, but only in the their own time eg evenings, weekends or during the week if they work part-time for the NHS. They do not do private in NHS time!

They get their NHS salary for doing NHS patients and get paid by insurance or by patients for doing private patients (in their own time).

PS Unless you think the consultant can sort out your condition with a consultation there is no point in paying for it. You can get a private appointment quickly but you may need tests or an operation and unless you want to pay for them as well, you need to use the NHS route.

If PALS can't help you - I've always found them helpful though- perhaps go back to your GP and see if he can refer you to someone who can see you quicker.

pmduk

queen_of_cheap wrote: »

If its anything like the new technology we had forced upon us, it will have been a very expensive disaster! Ours was so bad it made the bbc national news

Any Government "new technology" is guaranteed to be late, cost 2-3 times the original budgeted figure (at the very least), and not do the job for which it's designed.

ljonski

This subject is of some interest to me , not only because it concerns my health but it touched on one of my modules at University. My point relates to the foundation of the NHS in 1948 and what compromises Aneuran Bevan conceded to the BMA in order to get the NHS bill on statute.
Fact 1: 90% of the BMA voted against the establishment of the NHS to begin with- One member of the BMA even acquainted it with National Socialism or Nazism that had only a couple of years earlier been defeated in Germany.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/events/nhs_at_50/special_report/119803.stm

http://www.pauldcorrigan.com/Blog/health-policy/just-what-was-the-bma-opposing-in-1948/
Fact 2: The compromise that i mentioned :http://www.clairewand.org/images/BirthOfTheNHS.pdf page 30.

Bevan finally managed to win over the support of the vast majority of the medical profession by offering a couple of minor concessions, but without compromising on the fundamental principles of his NHS proposals. Bevan later gave the famous quote that, in order to broker the deal, he had "stuffed their mouths with gold

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aneurin_Bevan

I did not specifically say that Consultants use NHS time or facilities to conduct their Private Practice but they do "moonlight" for want of a better word,during normal working hours. When i did pay to see a consultant some years ago, it was at a private hospital at about 11.00am on a weekday.
I would certainly be interested in knowing the amount of hours that the average consultant is contracted to work. However i very much doubt if there are many Consultants on MSE able to tell us!

brook2jack

The majority of consultants work above their contracted hours of 48 hours a week. This has partly been because the working time initiative has stopped junior doctors working such long hours and consultants have correspondingly had to step up. Of course not all consultants are employed full time.

Interestingly the hours consultants are contracted to be paid has gone down as hospitals try to cut costs,but hours worked has gone up particularly in research where it is often regarded as an "unpaid hobby".

This is the present, not historical, reality. http://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/resources/2010-census-summary

Nicki

The fact that some consultants are available privately during the week at a private hospital doesn't mean they are there when they should be at their NHS practise (because they are being paid to be there).

Some consultants only work 2 or 3 days a week in the NHS and are paid accordingly. Some are on full time contracts but have negotiated that they work evenings or weekends sometimes in the NHS to catch up on their day in private practise.

My understanding is that consultants negotiate their own hours and are paid according to the hours they have negotiated. So some may do a lot of NHS work and barely any private, some do lots of private and barely any NHS, and some do all private, and some all NHS. So long as they are not being paid by the NHS for more hours than they actually put in for the NHS I don't see what your gripe is with the individual consultant.

I do however see why you are frustrated by the cancellations but I would say that is an admin issue rather than the consultants fault. When this has happened with me or my family and I have investigated the reasons why, it usually is because the registrar who is due to assist the consultant with that clinic has been double booked (or rostered for nights the day before) and therefore a proportion of the appointments in the list that day have to be cancelled.

Herongull

ljonski wrote: »

This subject is of some interest to me , not only because it concerns my health but it touched on one of my modules at University. My point relates to the foundation of the NHS in 1948 and what compromises Aneuran Bevan conceded to the BMA in order to get the NHS bill on statute.
Fact 1: 90% of the BMA voted against the establishment of the NHS to begin with- One member of the BMA even acquainted it with National Socialism or Nazism that had only a couple of years earlier been defeated in Germany.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/events/nhs_at_50/special_report/119803.stm

http://www.pauldcorrigan.com/Blog/health-policy/just-what-was-the-bma-opposing-in-1948/
Fact 2: The compromise that i mentioned :http://www.clairewand.org/images/BirthOfTheNHS.pdf page 30.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aneurin_Bevan

I did not specifically say that Consultants use NHS time or facilities to conduct their Private Practice but they do "moonlight" for want of a better word,during normal working hours. When i did pay to see a consultant some years ago, it was at a private hospital at about 11.00am on a weekday.
I would certainly be interested in knowing the amount of hours that the average consultant is contracted to work. However i very much doubt if there are many Consultants on MSE able to tell us!

The history of the NHS may be interesting, this post is about a modern day problem.

The fact that consultants are allowed to do private work in their own time is irrelevant. If a consultant works part-time for the NHS or is full-time but works some evenings or weekends for NHS, they can do private work during weekdays

pmduk

It's a modern day problem, but caused by the BMA's insistence that they should remain in charge of the system, back in the 1940's.

With the abolition of PCTs it'll only get worse.

ljonski

Well i'm still going round and round in circles !
I went on Choose and Book website.
Need password from GP
rang up GP - "Sorry as this was a paper referral - you cannot have password and can't use Choose and Book" !
This is like a scene from a Kafka novel!

easy

Herongull wrote: »

Unless you think the consultant can sort out your condition with a consultation there is no point in paying for it. You can get a private appointment quickly but you may need tests or an operation and unless you want to pay for them as well, you need to use the NHS route.

This isn't true. You won't get your tests done until you have seen a consultant to determine what needs testing. You can see a consultant privately, and he can then refer you to the NHS hospital for your tests/xrays/scans or whatever. The waiting lists for tests on the NHS are usually rather shorter than that for the initial consultation with the consultant.

As a family we have done this a number of times in the past for different conditions. Get a private appt with the consultant, then you get any investigations started, but under the NHS.