There a little known provision within NHS England (perhaps other home countries too) called NHS Choice. It basically offers patients the opportunity to have onwards referrals from a GP to where they choose, rather than where the GP sends them. GPs don't normally like to offer this service (in my experience) because it means more work for them explaining what the alternatives are, possibly including private medicine supplying services to the NHS. Note that it's a choice on offer where you go not which specific person you will see. Importantly you don't have to make your selection whilst you are sitting with the GP you can go away and think about it. It may require some research on your part and at the end of the day you might be no better off in terms of what level of care you get or how long you have to wait for it, but at least you have had the opportunity to consider your options.
Both my wife and I have had reason to use it and found it very useful, although my wife had to apply quite a lot of pressure to get to go where she wanted for hip surgery, when dealing with the NHS service who act as a buffer between the GP and the surgery team (which in this case was outside the NHS).
Finally in times of long waiting lists this is an extract from the above link which I have just spotted, which I certainly wasn't aware of. although how that translates into practice in the current state of affairs is anyone's guess!
You have the legal right to ask for your appointment to be moved to a different provider if you're likely to wait longer than the maximum waiting time specified for your treatment.
This has come up before in earlier posts but no thorough discussion as you have offered here. My husband has thought about this a couple of times but changed his mind about the whole treatment he was considering so it did not happen in the end.This option has existed for a few years but it has all been' kept very quiet'. I raised this for heart surgery a few years ago with my cardio. and she looked at me as if she did not known what i was talking about!Now with longer waiting times some people are considering their options a bit more. But it should be more widely known about. You have raised a very inportant issue.
I had a consultant (after GP at my request referred me to another hospital in my area for second opinion) say there is an issue of budgets if I wanted to be treated there as “my budget” sat with the other hospital/ trust. He didn’t say nomjust muttered it a couple of time, Just made me wonder if that’s why they don’t advertise it too much?
hello that’s a really useful option to know about. I was aware but not of its formal name and details. It good to have some choice than be beholden to a GP’s possibly limited views.
Would you have any advice on how to find out waiting times for different hospitals?
And how do you find out what the maximum waiting time is for a treatment? Sorry if digressing.
I’ve got a 40 week (actually 38 now 😊) wait for a sleep consultant and my cardiologist has used the words “potential hypoxia” in my last letter.🥴
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There is a section in the posted link about waiting times. Although as is often said on here it really depends on where you are, what you are being referred for, and what pressure the service you have been referred to is facing.
used the book and choose system when he referred my for my knee. Unfortunately when the 2 choices came through there were no appointments available. Had a comforting message (not) that we aim to see 9 out of 10 patients within 54 weeks. Left my details and did manage to get an appointment in January and am now on the list to get knee replacement. The wait for that is another story
we have used this for my wife to have 2 knee replacements and a hip replacement.the latter was delayed due to Covid but even then her wait from seeing the consultant to surgery was 6 months and surgery was done with all Covid precautions in place .
You are right there Milkfairy. I live in Wales but both my historically long-standing optician and dentist are over the border in England. On a couple of occasions I have had to be referred to hospital for eye checkups. My Dr and local hospital are in Wales. That means that optician had to write to GP who then had to refer me to hospital instead of being able to do it direct. It took ages. Then he wasn't sent the results. I had to request them and post them to him.
I believe it is all to do with budgets and health trusts, mine is not noted for prompt payment in these matters.
Whatever happened to the concept of a NATIONAL health service.
I used it to opt for minimally invasive surgery in London over the standard sternotomy available locally. I was accepted for the procedure but I'm still waiting for the op 10 months later.
I do know that if you go out of area funding has to be approved by your local area as they have to pay which can take a while it happened to my daughter as her area did not have the service she needed
My GP has used it for years - you get a login and password and then you can check all the providers and their wait times, 1st appointments etc. I first used it in 2009!
I'm lucky to live in London, where there are many great hospitals all within 10 or so miles of each other. However, it is not practical to drive to many of them, and public transport is often a case of getting a bus, then a train, then a tube, and can take 90 minutes to travel that less than 10 miles.
When my (NHS) dentist wanted to refer me to hospital to check a potential mouth cancer last year, she said "it will probably be King's [the nearest large hospital to the dentist, and in the same Trust], is that ok?" I said could you try St George's [my heart, neuro and audiology hospital] or Croydon [the nearest hospital to both myself and the dentist]?" She said she'd try, but she wasn't sure if either of them had the right facilities. Two days later, I got an appointment for Guy's Hospital [central London] the following week. Certainly not so convenient, but I could hardly complain when they saw me so quickly! (It wasn't cancer - phew!)
NB All 4 hospitals mentioned here are in different Trusts!
yes it is called Choose and Book and that is how I am having my hip replacement. The waiting list on NHS was one year! Four weeks after seeing the private doctor in Choose and Book I have been given a date for Monday. Great service and takes the heat off the NHS too.
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