It pays to be persistant

Originally Posted by BluePete

My current knee injury is being treated privately by the job. My NHS GP said I needed an MRI scan and this would take about three months to get the appointment to see the knee doctor at the hospital, then another several month wait for the scan, then another several month wait for the results, then another several months wait for the operation.
Same day as the GP appointment, met one of the job doctors, lo and behold, 27 hours later I was actually in the MRI scanner, car in a reserved spot outside the private hospital where everything was clean and I was called Sir whilst being served fresh coffee by a lovely receptionist in an air conditioned, leather sofa'd waiting area.
One week later whilst at physiotherapy, results came in and I have the meeting with the consultant who will be doing the op. next week.
Time since injury? Five weeks. Time since seeing job Doc and getting appointment with consultant and having had an MRI scan? Two weeks.

Lucky old me eh?


PS, I would rather not have a ruptured medial collateral ligament though! It hurts, and not "man pain" this really hurts!

Pity I can't afford private health care for all of my familly. This really opened my eyes to what is possible.

That has made me sad. I am glad you are sorted, genuinely, no one should have to suffer. But what has this system come to. My mum has worked all her life, paid all her taxes and NI, been a fit and healthy women up until about 18 months ago .... and yet she is waiting, waiting, waiting. Maybe if she hadnt paid all her taxes etc. she would have had the money for private health! Ironic

hence y i decided to fork out £50 a month to BUPA

Originally Posted by BluePete

My current knee injury is being treated privately by the job. My NHS GP said I needed an MRI scan and this would take about three months to get the appointment to see the knee doctor at the hospital, then another several month wait for the scan, then another several month wait for the results, then another several months wait for the operation.
Same day as the GP appointment, met one of the job doctors, lo and behold, 27 hours later I was actually in the MRI scanner, car in a reserved spot outside the private hospital where everything was clean and I was called Sir whilst being served fresh coffee by a lovely receptionist in an air conditioned, leather sofa'd waiting area.
One week later whilst at physiotherapy, results came in and I have the meeting with the consultant who will be doing the op. next week.
Time since injury? Five weeks. Time since seeing job Doc and getting appointment with consultant and having had an MRI scan? Two weeks.

Lucky old me eh?


PS, I would rather not have a ruptured medial collateral ligament though! It hurts, and not "man pain" this really hurts!

Pity I can't afford private health care for all of my familly. This really opened my eyes to what is possible.

I could go into my NHS timeline as a comparison...

... but it's a sad and sometimes laughable tale I wouldn't wish on anyone.

Originally Posted by 600+

hence y i decided to fork out £50 a month to BUPA

Yes! Its a lot of money, and correct me if I'm wrong but before they decide the price you pay, don't they assess your health? So if you are already 'unwell' your premiums are going to be shockingly high

Originally Posted by Tomcat

Yes! Its a lot of money, and correct me if I'm wrong but before they decide the price you pay, don't they assess your health? So if you are already 'unwell' your premiums are going to be shockingly high

Not all policies take current health into account, but most do unfortunately yes. Also most have a clause that you cannot claim for a condition known about before you took out the policy, or a minimum waiting time before you can claim on any pre-existing condition.

Like I said Tomcat, if your mum won't call the hospital because of respect etc, call for her. Make "general enquries" at first becuase you're a concerned next of kin (or so you'll tell them on the phone anyway). This will get you an honest opinion from the appointments staff as to how long you're looking at waiting.

Then talk your mum into going to the GP with you, as you're a concerned daughter & promise her that you'll just sit there & listen. When in the GP's surgery, explain to the GP and ask politely if there's ANYTHING that can be done to speed it up. About all they can do is an expedition letter though (which just asks the consultant to look at the case again - or ours did).

If you get that letter, keep pestering appointments. If you don't get that, pester another GP It works in the end, just takes a little determination.

Good luck with it all

Not wanting to go on! .... but

I have been to the doctors with her, she ends up crying, we end up comforting her, and getting emotional, and then the doctor just repeats that these type of things are difficult to diagnose, it's probably not cancer so dont worry.

It's not just worry, its being ill, its not being able to get out of bed for days, its congratulating yourself when you have managed to empty the dishwasher in a day, its not arranging a social life because you don't know if you will be able to get out of bed, its not being able to spend time with the grandchildren because you don't want them seeing you ill, its not sleeping, its not walking round the garden, it's relentless... but hay, don't worry!

He sends her for further tests (different ones every time) but then the waiting time for each test/scan/mri/camera etc is weeks. Why can't they perform one test, have no joy so prioritize her for the next test, she is constantly joining the end of the queue!

She doesnt want a fuss, she wants to pretend its not happening, and constantly thinking that tomorrow she may feel better, so she waits, waits waits

[Biker Biggles]

While it is sadly true that money is wasted on red tape,over management,target meeting and political interferance,it is grossly unfair to compare the NHS with private medical care.The privateers have the overwhelming advantage that they can cherry pick the conditions they will treat,and the people they will insure.Therefore they run "production line" hospitals doing efficient operations and tailor their premiums to exclude high risk or high cost patients.Nice work if you can get it,and nice to be covered by the system if you fit in.Tough **** if not.
Possibly the playing field could be levelled slightly by making the privateers pay for the training of the staff they poach from the NHS.Then perhaps the NHS could charge private hospitals for making good the damage they do when proceedures go wrong,or providing emergency cover for unforseen problems that arise during operations.Or we could insist they provide a full and comprehensive healthcare package at a fixed price for everyone and see how they compete then.But that's revolutionary talk.

Originally Posted by Biker Biggles

While it is sadly true that money is wasted on red tape,over management,target meeting and political interferance,it is grossly unfair to compare the NHS with private medical care.The privateers have the overwhelming advantage that they can cherry pick the conditions they will treat,and the people they will insure.Therefore they run "production line" hospitals doing efficient operations and tailor their premiums to exclude high risk or high cost patients.Nice work if you can get it,and nice to be covered by the system if you fit in.Tough **** if not.
Possibly the playing field could be levelled slightly by making the privateers pay for the training of the staff they poach from the NHS.Then perhaps the NHS could charge private hospitals for making good the damage they do when proceedures go wrong,or providing emergency cover for unforseen problems that arise during operations.Or we could insist they provide a full and comprehensive healthcare package at a fixed price for everyone and see how they compete then.But that's revolutionary talk.

Originally Posted by Biker Biggles

it is grossly unfair to compare the NHS with private medical care.

I wasn't making that comparison for our case. In our specific case, we'd be claiming on a private medical insurance policy, and getting an NHS hospital, NHS operating theatre, NHS operating staff, NHS staff on the wards etc etc etc...

IMO, despite what F_S says about the money being used for someone else, there's only so many operations the NHS can do in a day, so I won't allow my family to skip the queue simply because of the insurance premium. If it were a private hospital, with it's own staff etc, then fine, it'd of been done long ago (and actually, we wouldn't of even had the incident where Harry stopped breathing - because he'd of had the operation by that point).

Originally Posted by Baph

Long story, feel free not to read

As many of you know, we've been waiting for an appointment for the youngest to go have an operation to have his tonsils & adenoids out.

Not long ago, we went through the scary thing of him stopping breathing during the night. Thanks to the alarm system that I rigged up, we knew about this straight away & things worked out well. He still ended up going to A&E in the back of an ambulance though. But because by this time he was well & truly awake, he was sent home again the same night. Understandably the NHS is overloaded, and they can't really keep him in on the off chance that it might happen again. Not nice, but that's life.

As a result of this, the next day we went to the GPs to explain the situation, and to rant about the NHS waiting list process. The GP thankfully understood fully that we weren't able to demonstrate how pathetic his breathing could be (other than an audio recording that I'd taken a while back), and wrote a letter of expedition to the consultant.

A couple of weeks ago, we called the hospital to make enquiries, and found out that they never received the letter!! Off to the GPs again, who this time printed the letter for us to keep, and sent it again to the consultant.

Yesterday, jen called them again. Still not recieved. However, this time, the woman on the other end of the phone simply said "Oh, I see we've had a cancellation, how's the 19th July sound?"

FAN-BLOOMING-TASTIC!!! That's how it sounds!

So the moral of the story, keep applying pressure, sooner or later something, somewhere will give.

Whatever the politics of the situation, Im pleased to hear your little ones getting sorted mate