How to get treatment?

seven-day-weekend

thepurplepixie wrote: »

I recently waited 8 months for an appointment as the hospital was running that department with locum Consultants. They were running clinics on Saturdays and Sundays as I assume the locums were working in their own hospitals Monday to Friday. They can't give appointments if they haven't got the staff and the NHS is crumbling due to underfunding. It is going to get alot worse but that is what the country voted for.

I phoned up about waiting for the appointment twice and both times they apologized and explained they hadn't got a Consultant and I know that was and is true because I looked at their advertised vacancies. The good part of it was the clinic was extremely streamlined and rather than just a preliminary appointment I saw the Consultant, appropriate treatment and I was back home in an hour.

Oh well that's OK then.

I think if he'd have been told eight months for an appointment, whilst not being happy about it, my husband would probably have said, 'oh well they must be busy' and gone on to Plan B. But the letter he got saying 'no appointments available' is just an insult. They can now probably tick their box to say he has been contacted and forget about him until next time they have to tick a box.

And there IS a Consultant in this case. The same one as my husband saw privately.

theoretica

Did they have any way of knowing he was probably going privately? Just send him a letter it's all he actually needs at the moment...

seven-day-weekend

theoretica wrote: »

Did they have any way of knowing he was probably going privately? Just send him a letter it's all he actually needs at the moment...

No.....this was supposed to be an NHS appointment.

thepurplepixie

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Oh well that's OK then.

I think if he'd have been told eight months for an appointment, whilst not being happy about it, my husband would probably have said, 'oh well they must be busy' and gone on to Plan B. But the letter he got saying 'no appointments available' is just an insult. They can now probably tick their box to say he has been contacted and forget about him until next time they have to tick a box.

And there IS a Consultant in this case. The same one as my husband saw privately.

I wasn't told there would be an 8 month wait, I was told they couldn't give me an appointment due to no Consultant available. I phoned 3 times and was told they were still using locums and they had to prioritise and other more serious cases were taking the appointment.

Maybe if the Consultant was using his time to see private patients he would have more time for NHS patients. I understand alot of them work part time in the NHS so they can do private work.

What do you expect when we have an underfunded service that is struggling with staff shortages. Did you think the magic NHS fairy would sort it all out?

seven-day-weekend

B

thepurplepixie wrote: »

I wasn't told there would be an 8 month wait, I was told they couldn't give me an appointment due to no Consultant available. I phoned 3 times and was told they were still using locums and they had to prioritise and other more serious cases were taking the appointment.

Maybe if the Consultant was using his time to see private patients he would have more time for NHS patients. I understand alot of them work part time in the NHS so they can do private work.

What do you expect when we have an underfunded service that is struggling with staff shortages. Did you think the magic NHS fairy would sort it all out?

The consultant in question saw my husband at 7.30 pm so I don't think there was time taken out of his clinic.

thepurplepixie

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

B

The consultant in question saw my husband at 7.30 pm so I don't think there was time taken out of his clinic.

Well my appointment was a Saturday and my sister had an nhs appointment in the evening and my aunt went to a clinic on a Sunday. You're not the only Seven dayer, the NHS is open longer hours and 7 days a week. Mind you I always thought it was 24/7 but apparently not.

I think you misunderstand, Consultants take part time NHS roles because people pay for private appointments to jump the queue. Neat isn't it. If you had to wait after a private appointment people wouldn't bother, Consultants wouldn't have so much private work and would do fulltime NHS contracts. Would help to reduce queues. I wonder why they cling to the current system?

thepurplepixie

gingerbread_cat wrote: »

While I agree to a point with purple, I have been in this situation and effectively queue jumped. In November 2003 I had a breast lump. Went to the Gp who was worried and referred me. Had a letter saying they would send me an appointment in 18 weeks, and I could expect to wait 21 weeks in total.
I was 30, I had two young children, and I knew I was ill. I didn't want to spend the next 6 months worrying. I paid £200 to be seen at Bupa the following evening. The consultant put me at the top of his NHS list, I had a mastectomy three days later and then started treatment.
I queue jumped, and somebody will have had to wait longer I'm sure. £200 was a lot of money (paid for from Christmas savings) and I could never have paid for the treatment privately. But I would have died if I'd waited - consultant said I would have only lived 6 months without treatment. Morally it's unfair, but I also feel it's morally unfair to die and leave small children if you can help it! What we see depends on where we stand, and the experiences that shape us.

Sorry I missed your post earlier. I don't think what you did was morally wrong, you had your treatment as a priority because of need. I am talking about people who are having a routine op/procedure and jump the other people who can't get on the 2nd queue until they have waited in the first queue. I'm not sure if that is clear so I will give an example. You need a small op, it is for something annoying but not life threatening or urgent so think something like you keep getting tonsillitis and it is painful, you miss time at work but it isn't life threatening. The NHS queue is in two parts, the first part is a six month wait to see the Consultant, when you see him he agrees you need an operation but it isn't urgent so you join the second part of the queue, let's say it is another six months so a year after your original referral you get the op. I have the same problem as you but I get referred five months after you but I decide to pay to see the Consultant so I see him a month before you and get straight onto the second queue and wait my six months. I wait six months, you wait a year because you have given a Consultant £200 to get in front of me even though I have been waiting longer. That is immoral imo, getting urgent surgery because your life depends on it isn't, again it is my opinion but if you saw me jump the queue you might feel the same.

lessonlearned

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

UPDATE: Our wonderful NHS

After waiting for several weeks, my husband has had a letter regarding his NHS appointment for his procedure:

.......There are no appointments available.


Make of that what you will.

Oh dear.......it’s not good is it.

I really do fear for the future of the NHS. I don’t think it’s going to survive. I agree it is partly due to insufficient funding but I also think it’s very open to abuse and is misused.

There are far too many people out there who suffer from what I call “Dr Kildaire Syndrome” . They regard doctors as Gods who have the power of life and death when in truth they don’t. Yes there are daily miracles but there are also sad outcomes. People die, some people have conditions which are incurable. That’s all there is to it. That’s the way it is. And, as you know, I speak from personal experience, having lost my husband who died at the tender age of 57 due to a rare and incurable neurological condition.

So many people have such unrealistic expectations and there is a large subsection of the population who make no attempt to live healthy lifestyles or take any responsibility for their health and well being.

I have just heard this week of a family where the father has to have foot surgery because of his uncontrolled diabetes......and his daughter is going to have bariatric surgery because .......“she can’t lose weight”.

Both of these proceeedures are going to cost tens of thousands, both are high risk with almost guaranteed complications which will necessitate further and probably lifelong treatments and monitoring. Both are entirely preventable.

And these are not isolated cases.

We now know so much more about health, dietary influences and lifestyle choices. Previous generations were less well informed but we have no excuse. We should be a much healthier nation than we are. Obesity, diabetes, strokes, some heart conditions and some cancers are driven by lifestyle factors. People need to wake up and take ownership of their bodies (and minds).

And things are not likely to improve in the decades to come. People think they can abuse their bodies and then Dr Kildaire will come along with a magic pill or potion or a miracle operation and all will be hunky dory. Well it won’t.

The NHS cannot survive in its present form unless drastic action is taken. And no one wants to grasp the nettle. Governments tinker round the edges and pass the buck.

sheramber

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

B

The consultant in question saw my husband at 7.30 pm so I don't think there was time taken out of his clinic.

How many hours had he already worked that day?

How tired would he be the next day because he worked long hours to make more money?

Tiredness leads to mistakes.

Mu husband had an appointment at 4 pm. but the clinic was running late and he was not seen until after 5pm. the consultant referred him for a pre op assessment and said a nurse would take us round to outpatients for it to be done.

When I said i thought they would be close by this time ( nearly 6pm) I was told they would be working for a while yet.

He previously had an outpatient appointment on a Sunday including an xray.

I have had an evening appointment.

NHS doesn't always work office hours.

seven-day-weekend

lessonlearned wrote: »

Oh dear.......it’s not good is it.

I really do fear for the future of the NHS. I don’t think it’s going to survive. I agree it is partly due to insufficient funding but I also think it’s very open to abuse and is misused.

There are far too many people out there who suffer from what I call “Dr Kildaire Syndrome” . They regard doctors as Gods who have the power of life and death when in truth they don’t. Yes there are daily miracles but there are also sad outcomes. People die, some people have conditions which are incurable. That’s all there is to it. That’s the way it is. And, as you know, I speak from personal experience, having lost my husband who died at the tender age of 57 due to a rare and incurable neurological condition.

So many people have such unrealistic expectations and there is a large subsection of the population who make no attempt to live healthy lifestyles or take any responsibility for their health and well being.

I have just heard this week of a family where the father has to have foot surgery because of his uncontrolled diabetes......and his daughter is going to have bariatric surgery because .......“she can’t lose weight”.

Both of these proceeedures are going to cost tens of thousands, both are high risk with almost guaranteed complications which will necessitate further and probably lifelong treatments and monitoring. Both are entirely preventable.

And these are not isolated cases.

We now know so much more about health, dietary influences and lifestyle choices. Previous generations were less well informed but we have no excuse. We should be a much healthier nation than we are. Obesity, diabetes, strokes, some heart conditions and some cancers are driven by lifestyle factors. People need to wake up and take ownership of their bodies (and minds).

And things are not likely to improve in the decades to come. People think they can abuse their bodies and then Dr Kildaire will come along with a magic pill or potion or a miracle operation and all will be hunky dory. Well it won’t.

The NHS cannot survive in its present form unless drastic action is taken. And no one wants to grasp the nettle. Governments tinker round the edges and pass the buck.

I agree it cannot survive in its present form. So a different form will have to be taken. Maybe stop providing things like translation services, or IVF, or gender changes on the NHS. These are all to do with choice, not necessity and I'm sure there are other non-essential things too that the NHS could stop providing.