too many choices - can any one help?

Hi All,

Today I received my eagerly-awaited referral to the pain clinic. I have a 'choose and book' form. I have been offered 4 choices, and can't tell whether it's for the same thing in different hospitals, or different things in different hospitals. How do I find out more about the choices on offer, before I make my decision?

The choices are:

Pain procedures (Spire Dunedin Hospital);

Pain Relief - Pain Management (Churchill Hospital)

Pain Management - Royal Berks Hospital

Pain Management - West Berks Community Hospital

I think the last 2 are the same, but in different locations. But is there a process / website / person to ask, where I can get information about the different services and what will be offered once I get there, or do I just close my eyes and stick a pin in the paper?

Thanks in advance for any advice / information.

Kaz

[Hidden]

Did you get a number to phone and book... If you have try phoning and asking if they know what they are offering as they are sending the options.... I can't guarantee they will actually know , if my letter and subsequent phone call to podiatry are anything to go by ... But it's worth a try...

Nice to see you on here

VG x

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Thanks. It's good to have a place (and fibro family) to turn to. Just confused by being offered so much choice! Will try phoning them tomorrow.

I'm still 'in recovery' from a lot of driving and an emotional day yesterday with my brother-in-law's funeral. It was as lovely as such an occasion can be! Definitely a celebration of his life, but also a farewell to a special man.

No doubt will be back to being more active on here soon though.

xx

[Ozzygirl64]

If you get a choose and book form it is normally for the same thing it just gives you choices of where you would like to go. I have had loads of these in the past and it makes things so much easier. I wish you well with pain clinic hunni xxxxx

[Ozzygirl64]

Oh and I forgot to say all of those are all the same thing. Just some hosptial use a different term xxxxx

[Hidden in reply to Ozzygirl64]

thanks. it just sounds different - especially the Dunedin one, which says its a pain procedure rather than pain management!

[Ozzygirl64 in reply to Hidden]

I know hunni, they make it sound like some sort of operation. Some hospitals like to be 'posh', kind of like all the new jobs titles for old jobs lol. But I wish you well and you can still ring up if you are not sure xxxxx

[mistymeana]

Hi Kaz, don't be alarmed, it just means all of those hospitals offer the same service and they're giving you the choice of which to use. Lucky you here it's take it or leave it usually. The last two probably are different hospitals - the Royal Berks will be the large hospital with A & E etc and the community hospital is usually more of what used to be cottage hospitals for non-acute services such as physio, podiatry etc.

[LindseyMid]

I know that West Berks will be the same team as at the RBH, but with appointment in Newbury rather than Reading.

Spire Dunedin is a private hospital that works with the NHS. I think that might be down as procedures rather than management as they may only offer certain services, such as injections.

nhs.uk/Services/Hospitals/O...

Churchill is in Oxford.

ouh.nhs.uk/hospitals/church...

On the NHS.uk website, you can look up hospitals, find their websites and also read reviews by patients who have been there. Hope that helps.

Btw, if you go to any of these and feel they could do with information from FibroAction, just ask.

[Hidden]

Thanks Lindsey

I will bear in mind about the information for them.

In the end I could only book an appointment at Royal Berks - for April 15th. No appointments available in Thatcham! Spire don't seem to offer consultations or ongoing pain management - as far as I could tell from the limited informaion available, it is procedure based. The online booking system for Oxford wasn't working, and the average wait time for an appt was shown as 125 days. So Reading it is! Decision made for me.

Thanks to everyone for your advice and information.

Kaz

xx