Nhs Appointments

[Trevbet]

My wife attended a private consultation after which the consultant wrote to the GP asking for medical tests (MRI Scans and EEG ) to be arranged at the local hospital. Some eight weeks later after about 30 telephone calls and a letter to the consultant she still has no appointment date. It was realised that there would be a fairly long date to the actual tests but we hoped we might have had a date by now. The general responses from Consultants NHS and Private secretaries and appointments secretaries and GP Practice manager are " We cannot see where the problem is.
Should I change GPs perhaps.

[Sqad]

You do indeed have my sympathies, but I cannot see any point in changing your GP as the main problem is that the hospitals do not have the facilities for an acceptable service in many areas and your's seems to be one of those areas.

"Badger" you GP.

[rowanwitch]

Try using the PALs service sometimes that helps. You could go private for the tests as well but they would be pricey

[Baldric]

//a private consultation// I assume by that you mean you paid for it, now you're having to wait for the NHS (free medical care) to meet the wishes of the Consultant, as a heck of a lot of us have to, I'm sure if there was anything requiring urgent attention it would be prioritised, you probably live in an oversubscribed Health Authority area, and like everyone else will have to wait your turn, or get the wallet out again. I wish you well.

[boxtops]

Unless it's an emergency or a condition where there are deadlines for treatment, eight weeks is not long for NHS appointments. There are criteria for treatment times, eight weeks may well be in the acceptable band for your wife's condition.

Changing GPs will only complicate the matter. You need a straight answer from the consultant as to when they wrote to the GP. You can then go to the GP practice saying you know that X wrote on x date asking for a referral, please, can they tell you when the referral was made for the scans. They ought to be able to do the ECG in the surgery now, so I don't know what the delay is there. I have to say that at this time of the financial year, many health areas are running out of funds (as per usual) so will be prioritising urgent cases.

I don't understand the answer you're getting about "there isn't a problem" - all you want to know is where your wife is, in the queue.

BTW - no point in losing your temper about it, just keep checking with the GP who is requesting the appointments for you. The private consultant won't know. it's nothing to do with them any more, you've gone back to the public sector for your wife's next investigations.

[Sqad]

boxy...EEG......read the OP.

NOT ECG.

[boxtops]

I clearly need new glasses, sqad - thanks for spotting that.

[slaney]

The waiting time for non-urgent MRI around here is about 6/8 weeks. How long ago did your GP refer you?
Unfortunately the UK has fewer MRI scanners per capita than most other OECD countries - 5.6 per million population compared to, for example, Spain with 10 per million and Germany 9.5 per million. This means a long wait, and I'm not sure changing your GP would help as it is a capacity problem.

[Baldric]

I've got 2 x MRI's week after next, I will have waited 7 weeks for them.