Private Medical Care

[cxs957]

Hi Guys,

I'm after some advice on whether I should refer myself to a private clinic for Fibromyalgia. I feel I'm getting nowhere with the rheumatologist, and I've found a clinic in london which are specalists in fibromyalgia.

[cxs957]

I have been referred to a pain clinic but they never contacted me after my initial appointment.

[engSophie]

my GP told me that as a Fibro sufferer the pain clinic would refuse to see me

[fibropixie]

Hi cxs and engsophie, I would say that you should push for an appointment with the Pain Clinic. I had an initial appointment, then had to wait for a 9-week course to start. It was brilliant! Learning how to understand our cycles of pain and hypersensitivity is so important. They use mindfulness meditation which takes a bit of practice but is so worth it - I have this book and would recommend to anyone amazon.co.uk/Mindfulness-pr.... Also just being with other people in the group with fibro, cfs, cancer, whiplash, chronic pain invites an atmosphere of understanding and mutual acceptance with each other. It's been the best thing for me so far, I know it's not for everyone, but each person in our group got something out of it and wanted it to continue. Unfortunately we only had 9 sessions, but this can be followed up with pain management through your gp too. My philosophy with the NHS is that if you don't ask, you don't get. We'll never be totally rid of our pain, but learning to manage it and understanding it does reduce it. Hope this helps x.

[LindseyMid]

Work out what you want to get.

A lot of people who get to see specialists are disappointed because they wanted something the consultant was not able to provide - e.g. care for all your different conditions or immediate access to a multidisciplinary team or specific tests the consultant would not normally do or specific treatments which may not be suitable, whether this is certain medications or non-medication treatments.

If you would like to investigate medication options that are not currently being made available to you, but probably should be, then going private can definitely help. Think about whether your GP is likely to be willing to work with the advice from a private consultant and do your prescriptions though - this is often not an issue with consultants who also work within the NHS but some GPs won't do it as ultimately they have to take full responsibility for what they prescribe. If your GP won't do this, then think about whether you could afford private prescriptions. Depending on the medication, these can vary hugely from £20-40 for a medication for a month to hundreds of pounds a month.