Latest Moan From You and Me 2025

The earliest available appointment is in three weeks.

 

Well if you're 12 months late another 3 weeks won't make any difference.

 

Three weeks is classified as "instant" in NHS-speak.

 

My friend has just been told that her pacemaker that was installed some 18 months ago is the wrong one! It's been doing the opposite of what she really needs so she's been in and out of hospital as emergencies ever since.

I despair!

 

I had the same from my surgery moaning that I had my Flu Jab at a chemist in town and that the payments for these go to keep my surgery going. BS

 

I waited 7 weeks for a blood test and after 2 weeks I called into the surgery for the results and saw someone within 3 hours and then I got home to a letter from the surgery with a date for a blood test which I can't go to as working

 

We were switched over a few months ago but still see the number of the caller.

 

My niece was at work about a month ago when she had an agonising pain in her hip as she stood up and has pretty much been unable to sit for any length of time since. She got an appointment with the GP who apparently didn't examine her, just said it was probably a trapped nerve and gave her pain killers. This despite her having serious hip problems as a baby. The pain killers have little effect, she's unable to work, and has to either stand up or lie down apart from an hour or so after the pain killers. She has called the GP twice since and asked for a referral, but is just told that a trapped nerve can take time to resolve itself!
What steps, if any, can she take to get this referred for specialist opinion. She can't afford private treatment.

 

How to request a second opinion from a doctor - Health Service Navigator

And this, paragraph 7h.

https://www.gmc-uk.org/-/media/documents/good-medical-practice---english-20200128_pdf-51527435.pdf

 

I think this is a problem, the NHS spend loads of time keeping you off of waiting lists by trying all sorts of things which you know yourself wont work.
GPs don't seem to like referring people until they run out of ideas themselves, kind of understandable I suppose, but in a lot of cases I think it just puts off the inevitable.

It did for my knees anyway, about 3yrs of trying this and trying that before finally biting the bullet, luckily I pay into the Benenden hospital scheme which helps you jump queue.

 

The NHS have not worked out, yet, that if it diagnoses and treats patients promptly, before they are seriously debilitated by the problem it is cheaper and results in a better quality of life for the patient. The exception being the drive to pick up cancers early and treat early, other branches should watch and learn.

 

Truly dreadful @KT53 and @lizzie27 . We've been pretty lucky here with appointments, although none of us need doctors very often. The current situation with my daughter, who has developed endometriosis, has been handled well. I won't go into detail, but she has a further MRI on Tuesday to check if it's spread into her bowel. The consultant she's seeing wanted to be sure about it, due to her previous scans, and before she has the existing cysts removed, in case she needs further surgery. It means going to a different hospital, because the hospital there doesn't have the equipment for checking that, and he's being very thorough, and possibly saving her having two separate operations.
I'm eternally grateful that she hasn't had to wait the length of time I've heard other women have had to wait. The pain is intolerable at times for her.

 

My dad needed to be referred for a problem and the average wait was 48 weeks for an nhs appointment. In the end as it was making his life miserable, he decided to go private. The short version is that the gp took so long to sort out the referral that he only has to wait a month of so longer for the NHS to fix him, rather than private, which would have cost £4,000.

 

I was fortunate when I had my hip problem. I saw a younger GP who said that, although the pain was still manageable, she would refer me for surgery at that time so that I didn't get to the point of not being able to get around.

 

But this isn’t a new problem. 25 years ago my OH needed to have his gall bladder removed. He was in agony, dry retching every night. We were living in London. The NHS hospital said he’d have to wait a year to be seen. He thought he’d go mad. He said he wanted to go private. OK, how about next week? And with the same surgeon who would have done the op on the NHS.