Reducing my NHS waiting time?
Discussion
Probably depends on what the issue is and how quickly it might progress.
My mum, for cancer, consultant within days and on full treatment within a couple of weeks. Cataracts, consultant was about 4-6 months, surgery year later but second one only six weeks after the first. She wasn’t driving otherwise I’d have been chasing that one. I think there was an option to be on a reserve/short notice list which was not practical in her case. Heart attacks about 45 minutes. Broken kneecap, not long ago, day after getting x-ray at walk in clinic.
For her hips years ago , I think once they had met the consultant, paid for a private consultation to go over things more fully. Hips still done on nhs but I got the impression having a private consultation sped things up, don’t remember her waiting particularly long after consultation.
If you’re on a waiting list keep an eye out for the messages that say ‘do you want to stay on the list’. Get/login to the NHS App, sometimes more info on there.
My mum, for cancer, consultant within days and on full treatment within a couple of weeks. Cataracts, consultant was about 4-6 months, surgery year later but second one only six weeks after the first. She wasn’t driving otherwise I’d have been chasing that one. I think there was an option to be on a reserve/short notice list which was not practical in her case. Heart attacks about 45 minutes. Broken kneecap, not long ago, day after getting x-ray at walk in clinic.
For her hips years ago , I think once they had met the consultant, paid for a private consultation to go over things more fully. Hips still done on nhs but I got the impression having a private consultation sped things up, don’t remember her waiting particularly long after consultation.
If you’re on a waiting list keep an eye out for the messages that say ‘do you want to stay on the list’. Get/login to the NHS App, sometimes more info on there.
Your options:
1) get more sick, maybe red flag signs to get you on the cancer pathway
2) see if you can choose to be seen in another Trust that may have a shorter waiting list. Depends on the specialty and not likely to be much better.
3) pay to see a consultant privately. You can go back on the NHS after the initial consult
1) get more sick, maybe red flag signs to get you on the cancer pathway
2) see if you can choose to be seen in another Trust that may have a shorter waiting list. Depends on the specialty and not likely to be much better.
3) pay to see a consultant privately. You can go back on the NHS after the initial consult
Brainpox said:
Your options:
1) get more sick, maybe red flag signs to get you on the cancer pathway
Crap isn't it, we are in a situation where the easiest way to speed up the air time it to lie, but if everyone does that then those pathways for cancer etc get longer and longer.1) get more sick, maybe red flag signs to get you on the cancer pathway
We see it with policing, folk know that they aint getting a cop to come to them so an easy way to get the service they deserve in the first place is to lie and ramp up the risk factor, but again that chokes up the system for those genuinely in need.
Catch 22.
I pay into an employer health care system where once a GP has referred you to say a consultant, the policy puts you straight on the private care pathway to speed everything up. Shouldn't be needed, but it is,
Brainpox said:
Your options:
1) get more sick, maybe red flag signs to get you on the cancer pathway
2) see if you can choose to be seen in another Trust that may have a shorter waiting list. Depends on the specialty and not likely to be much better.
3) pay to see a consultant privately. You can go back on the NHS after the initial consult
3) is generally not allowed. If you go private you stay private.1) get more sick, maybe red flag signs to get you on the cancer pathway
2) see if you can choose to be seen in another Trust that may have a shorter waiting list. Depends on the specialty and not likely to be much better.
3) pay to see a consultant privately. You can go back on the NHS after the initial consult
I don’t see self funding out patients for this reason,
It’s not fair
The squeaky gate gets the most oil.
Once you have been referred, find the name of the consultant and phone up his secretary, every week. Make them aware you will take a last minute cancellation.
I jumped up a six month waiting list by phoning the consultant's secretary and got lucky as the phone call before mine was someone cancelling an appointment.
Once you have been referred, find the name of the consultant and phone up his secretary, every week. Make them aware you will take a last minute cancellation.
I jumped up a six month waiting list by phoning the consultant's secretary and got lucky as the phone call before mine was someone cancelling an appointment.
Pandox2096 said:
Brainpox said:
Your options:
1) get more sick, maybe red flag signs to get you on the cancer pathway
2) see if you can choose to be seen in another Trust that may have a shorter waiting list. Depends on the specialty and not likely to be much better.
3) pay to see a consultant privately. You can go back on the NHS after the initial consult
3) is generally not allowed. If you go private you stay private.1) get more sick, maybe red flag signs to get you on the cancer pathway
2) see if you can choose to be seen in another Trust that may have a shorter waiting list. Depends on the specialty and not likely to be much better.
3) pay to see a consultant privately. You can go back on the NHS after the initial consult
I don t see self funding out patients for this reason,
It s not fair
You don't lose the right when you go private.
Each Trust should have a protocol or Standard Operating Procedure for this situation.
You" re-entry" onto an NHS pathway without gaining an unfair time advantage for that particular step.
So, diagnosis could be private, but treatment is NHS: come onto the waiting list for a clinic appt at the point you would have been, had you not gone private. Time gained is the wait to diagnosis (paid for) but not the next steps (not paid for)
You can't get a private opinion, and then go straight onto the waiting list at the bottom.
We have a specific document for this.
I'm not going to not see someone just because they paid £250 to talk to someone else and get a diagnosis/direction/advice. Just like private schools, they take the pressure and volume out of the NHS, whilst the user is still paying the funding taxes.
Would you refuse to teach an 11 yr old because he came to your comp from a private school previously?
Slow.Patrol said:
Once you have been referred, find the name of the consultant and phone up his secretary, every week. Make them aware you will take a last minute cancellation.
When I have last minute cancellations in my NHS clinic, it means I can catch up and occasionally have some lunch.
We actually survive on 105% booking and 98% show-up rate.
The_Doc said:
Pandox2096 said:
Brainpox said:
Your options:
1) get more sick, maybe red flag signs to get you on the cancer pathway
2) see if you can choose to be seen in another Trust that may have a shorter waiting list. Depends on the specialty and not likely to be much better.
3) pay to see a consultant privately. You can go back on the NHS after the initial consult
3) is generally not allowed. If you go private you stay private.1) get more sick, maybe red flag signs to get you on the cancer pathway
2) see if you can choose to be seen in another Trust that may have a shorter waiting list. Depends on the specialty and not likely to be much better.
3) pay to see a consultant privately. You can go back on the NHS after the initial consult
I don t see self funding out patients for this reason,
It s not fair
You don't lose the right when you go private.
Each Trust should have a protocol or Standard Operating Procedure for this situation.
You" re-entry" onto an NHS pathway without gaining an unfair time advantage for that particular step.
So, diagnosis could be private, but treatment is NHS: come onto the waiting list for a clinic appt at the point you would have been, had you not gone private. Time gained is the wait to diagnosis (paid for) but not the next steps (not paid for)
You can't get a private opinion, and then go straight onto the waiting list at the bottom.
We have a specific document for this.
I'm not going to not see someone just because they paid £250 to talk to someone else and get a diagnosis/direction/advice. Just like private schools, they take the pressure and volume out of the NHS, whilst the user is still paying the funding taxes.
Would you refuse to teach an 11 yr old because he came to your comp from a private school previously?
If they are seen privately and need. On urgent treatment then I would add the NHS out patient waiting time to their place in an NHS list.
But it s messy so I personally refuse to see someone privately unless they are fully insured, that s more straightforward.
If I think they need to be seen urgently then I see them in the NHS clinic as an NHS patient just like everyone else
Edited by Pandox2096 on Sunday 26th October 10:27
The_Doc said:
Don't ring the Consultant's secretary every week. Make them aware, sure, but bothering them just slows everyone's job down. My secretary is unbelievably pressured and lots of them quit. Making us worse.
When I have last minute cancellations in my NHS clinic, it means I can catch up and occasionally have some lunch.
We actually survive on 105% booking and 98% show-up rate.
The main hospitals where I live have had some new software installed that handles the appointment system, however the data from the previous system was not carried over to the new system, so they have no idea what appointments patients have. I believe they are having to cross reference with paper notes but patients seem to be at some considerable risk so in their case they might be better phoning to check, only they won't as they don't know of the problem in the first place.When I have last minute cancellations in my NHS clinic, it means I can catch up and occasionally have some lunch.
We actually survive on 105% booking and 98% show-up rate.
You have the legal right to be treated within 18 weeks.
If you aren't, then you can choose to transfer your pathway of care to an alternative provider (this includes NHS Providers and Private Providers who hold appropriate NHS Contracts).
Depending what you have been referred for will vary the amount of choice you have available to you.
See Section 4 of the Choice Framework below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-nhs...
On the Private to NHS pathway, The Doc above, is absolutely correct. Anyone who would ordinarily be eligible for NHS funded treatment *remains* eligible for NHS funded treatment regardless of whether they have previously accessed privately funded care with the following conditions:
- patients should join the waiting list in the position they would have joined had their whole pathway been NHS funded (no waiting time advantage gained)
- the treatment would be ordinarily funded (i.e. the treatment isn't restricted on the NHS) and
- the referral from private pathway to NHS pathway is reviewed by an NHS clinician.
If you aren't, then you can choose to transfer your pathway of care to an alternative provider (this includes NHS Providers and Private Providers who hold appropriate NHS Contracts).
Depending what you have been referred for will vary the amount of choice you have available to you.
See Section 4 of the Choice Framework below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-nhs...
On the Private to NHS pathway, The Doc above, is absolutely correct. Anyone who would ordinarily be eligible for NHS funded treatment *remains* eligible for NHS funded treatment regardless of whether they have previously accessed privately funded care with the following conditions:
- patients should join the waiting list in the position they would have joined had their whole pathway been NHS funded (no waiting time advantage gained)
- the treatment would be ordinarily funded (i.e. the treatment isn't restricted on the NHS) and
- the referral from private pathway to NHS pathway is reviewed by an NHS clinician.
I think Pandox was onto the same ideas as me, with the specific point that he knows urgent things should be done urgently, whether there is money attached or not.
So urgent problem, and chequebook private practice is sometimes troublesome. So answer is ; just refuse to see them in PP. (I think, forgive me if I'm paraphrasing this wrong)
PP waiting lists can be 3-5 weeks, and some things needs operating quicker than this, so we just do them in the NHS.
As for the 18 week charter. My NHS waiting list currently has 301 people on it and they are all at 59-64 weeks when I get to them,
So I contend that the charter is not well known about or used in practice.
Furthermore, if patients understood what the government "should" be doing under a legal right, and they enacted it, there would be pandamonium, with the whole lot of them chopping and changing providers.
The NHS also "should" start cancer treatment in under 2 weeks and see everyone in under 4 hours in A&E. The often seen waits in A&E near me for muskuloskeletal injuries are 8 hours ish.
The data I quote here for my local area is seen nationally with few excepted areas. Wales and Northern Ireland are far worse.
So urgent problem, and chequebook private practice is sometimes troublesome. So answer is ; just refuse to see them in PP. (I think, forgive me if I'm paraphrasing this wrong)
PP waiting lists can be 3-5 weeks, and some things needs operating quicker than this, so we just do them in the NHS.
As for the 18 week charter. My NHS waiting list currently has 301 people on it and they are all at 59-64 weeks when I get to them,
So I contend that the charter is not well known about or used in practice.
Furthermore, if patients understood what the government "should" be doing under a legal right, and they enacted it, there would be pandamonium, with the whole lot of them chopping and changing providers.
The NHS also "should" start cancer treatment in under 2 weeks and see everyone in under 4 hours in A&E. The often seen waits in A&E near me for muskuloskeletal injuries are 8 hours ish.
The data I quote here for my local area is seen nationally with few excepted areas. Wales and Northern Ireland are far worse.
Yes, my slight moral concern is that by seeing people privately you may then pick up an urgent co diction that needs treatment while someone else might be waiting for an NHS appointment while harbouring the same illness.
That’s why I would rather do my best to accurately triage all referrals and see nhs and self funding patients both via the same NHS pathway.
It’s a difficult one though and you could argue that as long as seeing someone privately doesn’t make an NHS patient wait longer then there’s no moral harm I suppose.
I’d rather that private medicine and NHS medicine were completely separate to be honest, I think the Blair (?) government missed an opportunity when they proposed banning mixed practice (at least for 7 years after becoming a consultant) but then backed down.
Private-NHS conflicts of interest are behind a lot of tension in the NHS in my experience.
That’s why I would rather do my best to accurately triage all referrals and see nhs and self funding patients both via the same NHS pathway.
It’s a difficult one though and you could argue that as long as seeing someone privately doesn’t make an NHS patient wait longer then there’s no moral harm I suppose.
I’d rather that private medicine and NHS medicine were completely separate to be honest, I think the Blair (?) government missed an opportunity when they proposed banning mixed practice (at least for 7 years after becoming a consultant) but then backed down.
Private-NHS conflicts of interest are behind a lot of tension in the NHS in my experience.
Mark300zx said:
Many thanks for your help, I asked ChatGPT to pen a letter to my GP including the above recommendations and I have to say it did a remarkable job!!
Well done. (I made an appointment to see my GP last week for ongoing knee issue - 17th December. Even over the phone would have been the same date).
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