I’ve now been waiting over 5 months for an operation. Hospital have both my phone numbers in case there is a cancellation. Unable to speak to hospital due to recorded message so have spoken with my GP surgery. So far, no response.

Has anyone made a complaint (not sure who to though) and managed to get it speeded along?

I am also considering whether I should sue my local Council due to their negligance in maintaining the road where I crashed.

Enough is enough. 🙁

As always, thanks. 🙂

http://www.nhs.uk/choiceintheNHS/Rightsandpledges/Waitingtimes/Pages/Guide%20to%20waiting%20times.aspx

There you go, didn’t take long..

So your options are

1. Wait until they can fit you in.
2. Complain and wait until they can fit you in.
3. Ask for an alternative location to have the op (could mean an op abroad) or at your local NHS on the side private setup, with less good outcomes.
4. Go privately and get it done tomorrow.

Re council

“I am also considering whether I should sue my local Council due to their negligance in maintaining the road where I crashed.”

Would their defence be didn’t you see the road was in a bit of a mess?

I know about waiting times but in Scotland (my team is responsible for publishing the stats on this and I am involved with determining the ‘rules’ for how waiting times should be defined/measured)

There is a formal process for making a written complaint (google it, the website is different in England than Scotland). A complaint won’t speed things along, but if you think you should complain then do so.

Also, so back to your GP and tell them you have yet to be seen, and stating your displeasure.

Are you ‘medically available’ to be treated? If not, your waiting times ‘clock’ will be ‘paused’ until you are ft enough to receive the treatment ie according to the rules you will be treated within the required 18 weeks even if your actual wait (including the pause) is longer

My mum complained but it didn’t really get her anywhere so she went to private in the end. It’s a pain if you have to wait for ages

Thanks for your reply.

Just got off the phone from my GP surgery and have been told that due to backlog, it will be several months! Have said quite firmly that this is unacceptable as I can’t work, running out of money etc etc and I am prepared to go anywhere for the op. They will be speaking with my GP for his advice.

I’m not one for litigation but if it helps my case then I would.

Apologies, just having a girlie cry now. 😥

Complain. It won’t do you any good but it might do someone else some good in the future if they take your complaint on board and improve their service as a result.

Phone your GP back and tell them you wish to make a written complaint. They have to tell you how to do this. A real long shot but they might then find a way to fit you in

Sorry but this boils my p1ss. I see it all the time. The problem with having a target of 18 weeks from referral to treatment is if you breach 18 weeks then no one then cares if you then wait 19 weeks or 119 weeks.

Once you have breached then you have breached – they will have no incentive to fit you in quickly. Instead, they will be focusing resources on insuring that those patients about to breach are seen within the 18 week target so their figures look ok.

I get private healthcare as a BIK from work, and pay extra for the wife/kids to go on it.
I try to use it where possible, just get something for the monthly costs – I used it for my daughter 2 years ago for a consultation, which skipped a 12 week wait to see the same chap on the NHS – after the consultation he trasfered her future care to NHS, as his NHS facility was better equiped!
It might be worth you paying to go private at least for a ‘second opinion’ consultation, you might get lucky and find it ends up being a vehicle to bypass the waiting list? My mum had a similar experience a few years back so it wasn’t a one-off.

Oh, and before any hand-wringing paupers start flaming me for working the system – the policy costs me dear, as does my monthly NI bill.. and who wouldn’t do the same for their kids?

I’ve complained twice, initially you get fobbed off but if you get shouty enough (never swear but be very direct) at the right people (not nurses, management) then on both occasions I’ve been operated on about a week later.

In one case I was informed that I was the only person to be a non-urgent (I have to say after being cancelled 3 times I felt I was urgent) op that month in that unit.

In both cases after complaining to the management I rang and then wrote to the Chief Executive of the Hospital explaining my problems with their service.

On a positive side once they had worked out my scaphoid was not going to heal itself I was on the operating table 4 weeks later.

Freeagent.

That wont work. From what your saying I get the impression that you were waiting to see a consultant to make a decision on treatment. Once the decision on treatment was made you could then be slotted in to that treatment stream within the NHS, the backlog was getting the original diagnosis.

The OP has diagnosis and is just waiting for treatment.

Phone consultants secretary and/or waiting list co-ordinator. Try and be polite, many are not!! Just ask if they can clarify why taking so long. Most English trusts still hot on 18 week target.

Sometimes things get missed. Poor but the lists are run by admit staff who like everyone else sometimes make mistakes. Just rubbish when this means problems for patients.

If nothing else Askif you can be seen in clinic to discuss – we are always happy to see people when asked in these situations.

after the consultation he trasfered her future care to NHS, as his NHS facility was better equiped!

Breaking the law by doing so.

Sorry but this boils my p1ss. I see it all the time. The problem with having a target of 18 weeks from referral to treatment is if you breach 18 weeks then no one then cares if you then wait 19 weeks or 119 weeks.

This is what yo will be caught in CG I bet.

Look to alternative hospitals to get the treatment done. Complain to your MP, as above phone the waiting list co ordinator and ask why

Not sure what the Op is, but ask your Doctor what the private options are – at least then you can understand the cost/value relationship.

We found (for my wife) that it wasn’t as much as expected, and they will ‘deal’ if the individual is paying (and cc too).

Breaking the law by doing so.

I know someone else who’s done just that, so either you’re wrong or there’s a lot of naughty people arround.

+1

seems pretty damn common

OK, have now composed myself …

Thanks for replies. Funnily enough I did enquire about the private route before Xmas and I could be operated on two weeks later. By the same consultant. Hmmm.

To be clear, I wasn’t expecting immediate treatment so was prepared for a wait. But this is taking the proverbial and, as mentioned above, being over the 18 weeks means nobody gives a stuff.

No accountability and it’s just wrong.

Sits back and waits for a call from GP and I’m not exactly his favourite patient either.

Edit: there is a backlog apparently.

I needed an arthroscopy as my knee was locked out so I couldn’t work, the operation was a fraction of the cost it would be to take 3/4 months off work so I went to see the Doctor privately, when I saw him he apologised and said I should never have been sent away in that condition, went away and made a call, came back in the room and told me to be at my local hospital at 8am the next day…..so being proactive can pay off

“No accountability and it’s just wrong.”

What do you want them to do though? Hospitals already get penalised if they don’t hit 18 week targets ie reduce income from the PCT, but that doesn’t really help anyone.

Unfortunately the NHS doesn’t have a bottomless pit of money so they can not get everyones op done as and when you as a patient want it, and they have to prioritise. Only yesterday Mrs FD theatre list was cancelled as there were not enough beds for the patients, and these were people with urgent ops too. 🙁

I had waited over 13 months for a recurrent Hernia Operation. What i did was go back to my GP and complained, he then offered me a appointment within a week to see a Consultant with Care UK which was a Consultant poking me and basically doing a pre op in a pre fab unit on B&Q Car park in Bolton, i was then offered a date for a Operation within two weeks at a Local BMI Hospital.

It was fantastic, single room, brilliant post op care and so far the Hernia seems to be holding 15 months later. The last one lasted 4 months before it popped back out.

I was so impressed by the BMI that i now have Private medical Insurance. £40 a month and thats with two pre existing medical conditions.

Cinamon Girl, other hospitals are available, ask the gp about choose and book, you can use any hospital in england, even the private ones, i had the chance abnd stuck local.

http://www.chooseandbook.nhs.uk/

if not complain before this lot who think theyre running the country sell it all off, and offer nectar points.

If you are happy with the care you are receiving from your consultant then ask his private secretary to get a quote for your surgery to be performed privately.
You will probably find that it is cheaper to pay for your care than losing out on income etc. I would choose this route if it was me.
Pt complaint letters are a dime a dozen and I don’t think acheive much TBH. The only thing that makes hospitals move real quick are activity targets and ministerial orders.
You could bug your local minister and if you get on their nerves enough they will issue a directive to get you done just to get you off their back.
Changing hospitals will just reset your clock and take you backwards as the next clinician will assess you from the beginning rather where the last one left off.

Put in formal complaint requesting an explanation on why they have not met the 18 week guideline, and give them a deadline to respond by. (by the way if you are outside of 18 weeks -they should have contacted you and informed you of the options available). This is not uncommon with elective surgery and the case load most consultants carry.
You do have the right to go to another hospital or the use of private facilities where the NHS have not met the guidelines.
Remember private isn’t always better if the surgery is routine – consultant that does 100 a year is going to be better than one who does 10 a year – as in private sector.
The 18 week guideline is one of the proposed NHS changes – this missing deadlines seems to be more common as the changes are being implemented lately.
It is worth checking the NICE (national institute of clinical excellence guidelines) – good to know what excuses they are going to throw at you and the rights you have under the patients charter.
If you don’t speak loud – they’re not going to hear you!!!

TandemJeremy – Member

Right – so the concept of patient choice is fatally flawed then as allowing choice would mean those vulnerable people get the stuff thats left once others get their choice.

Unless of course you believe its right the powerful get the best f everything.

Now I really must leave the thread

Or the articulate ,STW informed complainers??

Look to alternative hospitals to get the treatment done. Complain to your MP, as above phone the waiting list co ordinator and ask why

Tell them you’re rich. That’ll work nicely.

I’ve not been in your situation before, and therefore do not have anything constructive to add, but I just wanted to offer my sympathy for the frustration you must be feeling. I cannot comprehend how you must feel about the ridiculousness of this whole scenario.

my doc was straight up about my recent care needs.. pay for it and be recovered by the time you even get to see the nhs consultant so i didi and he was right fully fixed by the time i got my appt.

but to amaze and really pee off the Op..
on monday i walked into a wall banged my face/ forehead and had a ”superficial” cut 20mm long, just below the hairline. went to a and e it had obviously stopped bleeding ( might have lost a table spoon of claret all in) nurse stuck it up with super glue right as a bobbin.. would i stay for an hour for obs due to my head injury ( it was 10.30AM) no probs upstairs to ‘ward’ cup of tea biscuit? no…

”head injury?.. jump in that bed your in for 24hr observation..” dr looked aghast when i said i’m offski..