NHS Waiting Times

Former Member

I just got my Appoint through on he weekend to see an eye specialist at Moorfield's eye hospital - but it's on the 19th December 2003 - 3 months away (and 4 months after I first applied).

I know my sister a number of years ago got an appointment to see a specialist on the NHS for her shoulder pains but it was 1 year away from the time she applied.

How long have you guys had to wait to be see to or treated on the NHS?

Former Member

i had to wait 6 months for an appointment for a bad knee. my dad had to wait ages to get a bad knee seen to as well but he was in that much pain he went private and in the end saw the same doc he would have seen on the nhs!!
must admit i got to see the eye specialist within two days of the diagnosis of my retinopathy BUT i was an urgent case but the waiting times are rediculous but what can you do? hospitals are hard pushed i reckon but it is a pain to have to wait so long especially if your worried!

Former Member

A&E is just as bad. i once had to wait 6 hours to see a doctor when i had concussion from playing rugby. when i got there i spewed in his office in protest

Former Member

gastroenterology - 4 months.
neurology - 6 months.
ear, nose, throat - 3 months for initial appointment, but i'm waiting on some tests that were applied for about 6 months ago.
psychiatry - 6 months.
psychology - 4 months for initial appointment, 10 months for treatment.

leeds has two huge hospitals and a vast network of smaller hospitals and surgeries and clinics, so i never waited TOO long for anything.

Former Member

Originally posted by wee wuman
i had to wait 6 months for an appointment for a bad knee. my dad had to wait ages to get a bad knee seen to as well but he was in that much pain he went private and in the end saw the same doc he would have seen on the nhs!!
must admit i got to see the eye specialist within two days of the diagnosis of my retinopathy BUT i was an urgent case but the waiting times are rediculous but what can you do? hospitals are hard pushed i reckon but it is a pain to have to wait so long especially if your worried!

I think part of the problem is when you first see a specialist often they themselves don't take you seriously .. I waited 6 months for an appointment to see and ENT Guy (Ear, nose and Throat) and he barely looked at me and didn't bother to use any specilist equipment he had at his disposable and simply gave me saline spray and said try this for 6 months and come back if there's no improvement ... So people end up going back twice instead of being seen to properly the first time

it's the long waits to see someone who'll diagnose the problem that annoys me, if you had cancer it could get far worse over time whilst you waited to see someone.

When I was little I needed to have my tonsils removed and the NHS consultant refused to do it .. then my parents paid for private operation and guess what the surgeon was the same guy who refused on the NHS but had no problems when it came to private!!

Former Member

Originally posted by DiamondGeezer
I think part of the problem is when you first see a specialist often they themselves don't take you seriously .. I waited 6 months for an appointment to see and ENT Guy (Ear, nose and Throat) and he barely looked at me and didn't bother to use any specilist equipment he had at his disposable and simply gave me saline spray and said try this for 6 months and come back if there's no improvement ...

Have you considered that he may not have neededto use that equipment, and that the saline spray nay have actuualy been an attempt to treat you without resorting to surgery?

So people end up going back twice instead of being seen to properly the first time

Or is it that our expectations are wrong? Do you think that a one-stop shop approach is always the right thing?

When I was little I needed to have my tonsils removed and the NHS consultant refused to do it .. then my parents paid for private operation and guess what the surgeon was the same guy who refused on the NHS but had no problems when it came to private!!

And yet it's managers who fuck the system...

If I had a pound for everytime I'd heard that.

~~~~~~~~~~

Out of interest, is this your first appointment with the eye specialist?

Former Member

yeah my neurologist appointment just came through, well shud i say the waiting list times. i dont have a date yet, just "16 weeks"
and thats from now wen i went to doctors 2 months ago.
though the fact that they read over the patient info and prioritise (hopefully anyway) means that they dont see it as too serious.
doctor wants to see me to "see if i need it pushing forward" but then STILL she mite not be successful even if she thinks i need to... madness

Former Member

The only time I remember making an appointment for the NHS at the hospital was when I had migraines. I think I waited about two weeks. So yeah.. I have no complaints

Former Member

The NHS are arseholes. i had an operation on my ear and was ment to have

1. a check up every month at St johns ENT ward.
2. another operation within 8months of my first.

i havent had NO check up apointments sent through which they said they would send through and i have been waiting 16months for my operation still with no luck. all i have had through is one letter saying im still on the waiting list.

they said i NEEDED this opertation withing 8months. Now this in my eyes is very bad pratice for the NHS i've complain on serveral occasion and they just say. im sorry your apointments in the post.

Former Member

Originally posted by Man Of Kent
Have you considered that he may not have neededto use that equipment, and that the saline spray nay have actuualy been an attempt to treat you without resorting to surgery?

Most ordinary people know their own bodies better then a doctor .. if you've waited 6 months to be seen you don't want to be fobbed off for another 6 months with what is water spray and what happens then you apply for an appointment after 6 months and then probabaly have to wait another 6 months on top of that?

There is a big difference between surgery, proper diagnostics equipment which they do have but couldn't be bothered to use and a torch which is the only instrument he used.

The whole point of seeing a specialist is to have both access to someone with specialist knowledge and equipment.

Former Member

Originally posted by Rude_boyz
The NHS are arseholes.



HEY NO NEED FOR THAT
:no:

i have had complaints about the nhs but i dont resort to that. is your counciller not working for the nhs? does your doc not work for the nhs? are they arrseholes?
like i said befoer i have had my complaints and waiting times do seem a joke but the nhs are very hard pushed. yeah we pay our taxes and stuff to pay for it but we never pay the full price of the treatment we get. im getting laser treatment to save my sight on the nhs and i had to pay for the treatment ive had so far i would be in alot of debt no doubt.
yeah we get angry and frustrated but think of all the hard working peopel in the nhs, they are not arseholes! :mad:

Former Member

Originally posted by DiamondGeezer
Most ordinary people know their own bodies better then a doctor ..

So if you know what is wrong, and the best way to treat it, why did you go to the doctor?

Or is it that you [/i]think[/i] that you know better?

if you've waited 6 months to be seen you don't want to be fobbed off for another 6 months with what is water spray

So your expectations are wrong then.

A doctor will always look to try the least invasive treatment. Surgery carried huge risks. General Anaesthetic can kill you - even if the doctor does everything right. It is a potential risk in all operations - though minimal.

So should your doctor expose you to that risk unecessarily?

I certainly don't think so. The GMC wouldn't either.

The doctor has a duty not to put you in harms way, so if a saline solution (yea water, with salt) offers a chance of treatment then that is what he should try first. It obviously works in a large number of cases or they wouldn't offer it. Unless you think that they like to have more work than they can cope with...?

There is a big difference between surgery, proper diagnostics equipment which they do have but couldn't be bothered to use and a torch which is the only instrument he used.

Again you say that he "couldn't be bothered".

How do you know this? Do you know what each piece of equipment does?

The whole point of seeing a specialist is to have both access to someone with specialist knowledge and equipment.

Why do you think that you didn't have that? Just because he didn't use all of the equipment in his room, doesn;t mean that he didn't use what he needed to.

Perhaps you'd like to have unnecessary investigations?

Would you have liked him to offer you an endoscopy (tube down your throat) just for the sake of using the equipment?

Former Member

Originally posted by Rude_boyz
The NHS are arseholes. i had an operation on my ear and was ment to have

1. a check up every month at St johns ENT ward.
2. another operation within 8months of my first.

i havent had NO check up apointments sent through which they said they would send through and i have been waiting 16months for my operation still with no luck. all i have had through is one letter saying im still on the waiting list.

they said i NEEDED this opertation withing 8months. Now this in my eyes is very bad pratice for the NHS i've complain on serveral occasion and they just say. im sorry your apointments in the post.

I simply don't believe this.

Partly because ENT won't be looking at your eyes.

If this is trus then contact your local Health Authority, PALS Service and/or Community Health Council. Your local hospital and/or GP have a duty to give you contact details if you ask for them.

Each of these organisations will act on your behalf and are independant of the hospital.

Former Member

Originally posted by Man Of Kent
I simply don't believe this.

Partly because ENT won't be looking at your eyes.

pssstt man of kent it was his ears he was talking about!

Former Member

Originally posted by wee wuman
pssstt man of kent it was his ears he was talking about!

Doh! Misread the "now this in my eyes" part.

Not that the NHS has problems with communication of anything :rolleyes:

Still don't believe it though. 16 months? People lose jobs for that kind of wait these days - and TBH if the Trust haven't picked up on the lack of follow-ups etc after complaints then they should do too...

Former Member

Originally posted by Man Of Kent
Doh! Misread the "now this in my eyes" part.

Not that the NHS has problems with communication of anything :rolleyes:

Still don't believe it though. 16 months? People lose jobs for that kind of wait these days - and TBH if the Trust haven't picked up on the lack of follow-ups etc after complaints then they should do too...

well it VERY annoying and yes i had the opertation a year ago 4months ago. and only one letter since january

Former Member

i dont have much experience with the NHS but last time I was in hospital I was rushed to a peadiatrics ward and put on a drip of antibiotics for a week. i think for people who earn a considerable amount that health insurance isn't a bad idea. The NHS used to a service for all but now it is mostly used by poorer people who cant afford private healthcare. i think in the future this trend will continue so that the NHS will become a 'fallback' health service for people with no health insurance.

Former Member

Originally posted by Rude_boyz
well it VERY annoying and yes i had the opertation a year ago 4months ago. and only one letter since january

perhaps you don't need to go back yet, there's no need to have a go at them :-\

i had an ent appointment the other day, was waiting over an hour, but i wasnt bothered.

i'd gone for an appointment a while ago and they mentioned this operation i could have. they said i could go away and think about it, so i said yeh and they made me an appointment for 11 months away :rolleyes: :eek2: i thought they meant in a week or something!

but hey, ive had my operation which was a success so wahey to the nhs :razz: :thumb:

Former Member

I had an operation in Aug 2000 in preperation for having my brace put on, and was put on the waiting list a year before I had the op, knowing that the waiting list was that long - if they'd offered me the op the day after I went on the list I wouldn't have been ready for it (teeth had to come through a bit more first), so it was a bit of forward thinking/planning in my dentists part.

I got a letter through for an initial appointment with the oral surgeon six weeks before the appointment, then got another letter a few days after that appointment saying I would have my op a month later. I had the op in August, then had to wait til March to have the actual brace put on - it didnt seem that long to wait tho, and I wasn't looking forward to getting it so I wasn't complaining! Once it was on, I had appointments every 6-8 weeks and there was never any great trouble if I had to change the date or time - could usually get another appointment within a few days of the original one (my othrodontist (sp?) worked at two hospitals so it was probably just the next day he was working at the one I used to go to).

All in all, it never seemed that long to wait, so I'm not complaining Just don't get me started on emergency GP appointments.... :mad:

Former Member

i think when you think of all the people in the uk and all the people suffereing some sort of ill health it kind of puts things in to perspective, yes some of the waiting times are awful but when it is a real emergency the majority of people are seen as soon as possible if not immeadiatly. when i was diagnosed with the retinopathy i needed to be seen asap and two days later i was starting my treatment with the eye specialist as it was urgent. when i had to get the barium enema i was told that i would have an appointment sent out as it wasnt an urgent case, however if it had been i would have been given an appointment there and then and for as soon as possible. i guess they have to proritise these things.

Former Member

People want everything for nothing in this damn country, which is why antibiotics dont work any more because you get morons marching in demanding to be looked at with every bit of equipment in the room just for a head cold.

Sheesh.

For the record, I was waiting three months between referral and seeing a specialist psychotherapist for assessment, and I was waiting another two months after that until I was found a place in therapy. And, all credit to them, at the main mental health unit in Newcastle the wait was 18 months so they rang everywhere in the North-East and got me in in Durham.