How to reduce your NHS waiting times?

[Apple2288]

Anyone have any advice for NHS waiting times? I’ve been ill for years and keep getting passed around to different doctors who keep doing tests that come back negative. I finally found out about endo, and went to my GP who couldn’t believe I haven’t been tested for it before. I’ve been referred to a gyno but the NHS website said current the waiting time for this is 38 weeks.

The hospital I’ve been referred to doesn’t test or treat endo either, which means they would have to refer me again anyway.

I’ve been ill for 9 years and it’s getting so much worse. I’m now taking codeine most days (which feels horrible, and makes my IBS-C worse), and barely have the stamina to walk. I’m supposed to be going into my final year of uni, which is currently in lockdown, whilst facing another 2 years before I get any treatment?

Does anyone know how to work the system a bit, and get made a priority?

I don’t function anymore, I’ve given up sport and exercising, I can’t wear most of my clothes anymore, my grades are getting worse at uni, I can’t go out with my friends, I feel like my life is on hold until I get surgery!

9 years is my limit, any advice?

[Viklou]

I know being a student is tough financially but if a family member could help I would seek out someone privately in that field. They maybe able to refer you quicker via NHS. You may need to join another forum on here to get more advice on perhaps ideas as to who is good

[Yahaci]

Please let me know when you find a way around the system.

[Hidden]

Tell the department or appointment line that you can be fully flexible and will take a cancellation. I've seen others get quicker appointments this way.

[Nothingimpossible]

As Viklou suggests, if you could go private 1st consultation they normally refer you to NHS . Was you not given a choice of hospital to go to? You normally get a choice these days, maybe something to look into. Also you could go back to GP and ask for a 2 week urgent referral which GP can do if they say they cant they CAN. My GP did this for me. Also look at Kim9876 on this forum, she has been diagnosed with endo and is going for hormone treatment. You can in box her if you want private. Endo have a helpline and online community. Only go into the NHS website. I hope you get sorted soon. Your young to be suffering. x

[Nifflerluck]

If the pain gets really bad you could go to A&E, when I had suspected gallstones I was waiting for a referral for an ultrasound and was told it could be up to 6 months. (Obviously not as bad as the 36 weeks you have been told) yet if you go to an A&E where you know they treat it and say you have been referred yet pain ect is bad you could get in quicker. I ended up getting an appointment within a week when I went to A&E when pain was bad.

[xjrs]

Your GP is the person who can escalate your case as an emergency and this should get passed on to the hospital. The thing to do is chase everything at each stage of the process:

1) get confirmation from the GP that they have set the case as an emergency

2) leave it a couple of days for this info to get pushed through to the hospital

3) phone the hospital main line and ask to speak to the appointment booking department for your condition

4) ask the booking department if they have seen that your case has now been marked urgent (sometimes they keep things set to non urgent even if the doctor has classified it as urgent - make sure this isn't the case)

5) ask who you have been assigned to consultant wise and keep calling the booking department until you get a name

6) ask the booking department who the name of your assigned consultant's secretary is and their contact information (phone number and email address) - sometimes the consultant has a hospital web page with contact information so you can google the consultant name to find out

7) keep emailing and phoning the consultant's secretary until you get a date for the appointment with the consultant and keep reiterating that your case is urgent

8) Once you have your initial consultation with the consultant you should be referred for tests - again keep badgering the booking line for the test if they are not in touch promptly (leave it for a week or so)

Alternatively, you could find a consultant that does both NHS and private work at your local private hospital and book an initial consultation with them - I did it this way and it cost me £150 for the appointment, so it depends on whether you can afford this. When he said that I needed further tests and the private hospital gave me a quote - the cost was way too high, so I emailed his secretary and asked whether I could be transferred to the NHS for the tests. I had to go back to my GP, since they would have to fund it. The GP then put in an NHS referral for me - I got contacted by the appointment booking system and I insisted on being allocated to the consultant I saw privately - this took at bit of persuading since they don't normally do this. I then got an appointment through about seeing the consultant again but this would have put me on the waiting list - I insisted on just being referred for the test by the consultant since I'd already had the initial consultation privately. I believe I had to correspond with the consultant secretary so that she would ask the consultant to request the test for me. Eventually I got referred just for the test, so they treated me as if I was already in the system. The way I persuaded them is that I didn't want to waste NHS resources and take a consultant's appointment that someone else could use, since I'd already paid for the initial consultation privately.

If you are unable to do all this yourself and you have e.g. a family member who is quite assertive, ask for that family member to be noted on your patient record as being someone who can talk to the GP surgery and the hospital about your case (otherwise they won't deal with them, so the confirmation of this needs to come from you). You should be able to do this via the GP practice and also the consultant's secretary.

Hope this information is of some use. Good luck.