Hi my husband has LVF and advised Echo deteriorated no figures to compare though ? GP referred him not urgent ? Hospital waits locally vary 3-4 months . GP says may need CRT , drug optimisation. We wondered if anyone had any experience of seeing cardiologist privately and then moving back to NHS. Previously saw cardiologist privately but only needed consultations. No private health care as HA 20 plus years ago.. any recommendations for north of England?
Thankyou
Hello Aussietraveller - It is your choice if you wish to seek a private Consultation in which case you could probably see someone within 2 weeks often the same week. The obvious advantage is the speed of referral, the fact that you will see the Cardiologist and not a Registrar (no disrespect to Registrars who are usually very experienced) and you will have a 30 minute consultation and not feel rushed. If investigations are recommended you can either continue to pay or explain you couldn't afford that and asked to be swapped to NHS and there is no problem in doing that. Of course you are then naturally back into a waiting list scenario. I have found this in the past when I felt unsafe in waiting 3 - 4 months just to have a first appointment on the NHS. As to who you see you can browse the web sites of private hospitals like Nuffield, Spire etc and read about Cardiologists background. Once you have a name you can in some instances see their performance stats by checking them on NHS sites. If you decide on a private consult make sure the person you are seeing is also currently practicing in the NHS which most are. I am impressed by the videos presentedd on YouTube by Dr Sanjay Gupta who is a Cardiologist with both Private and NHS practice in York. I have had no contact with him but like his powers of communication etc. Search him on YouTube under 'York Cardiology' In the North East last year I saw Dr Nick Jenkins (on the NHS) and he was very focussed and helped me. He also sees patients privately. Hope this gets you started.
Thankyou for this spent some time researching last night and will ring spire and Nuffield Leeds Monday to see what wait times are . It’s the first appointment that is so important where someone can spend the time to explain everything. I will have a look at the you tube video too as York not that far away. Although people say you should be see locally for cardiology some never seem to have follow ups in secondary care ? if you have a CRT?
Doctor Jason Causer
Nuffield hospital Chester, works both privately and for the NHS brilliant guy, he is looking after me at the moment, I am about to have a CRT-D fitted
Thanks hope it goes well , Chester is a bit far for us in case of any problems .
You are legally entitled to choose your hospital. If you are concerned about the waiting time you’ve been offered go on line and check waiting times for hospitals with cardiology services and see if there is anything better close to you and then go back to your GP and ask for an e-referral. Depending on the practice you’ll either get ok fine or duh, my husband and I have had both experiences, but you are entitled to ask and choose where you go
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