very OT, NHS waiting times

Certainly not all, as my wife doesn't (she tried it, and among other reasons, decided she would rather have a life), nor do some others I know of. It's not an easy option as contrary to common belief consultants are normally working fulltime for NHS and they can't bunk off early to go and do their private work. Hence much private work is done after hours or at weekends.

They'd get into a lot of hassle at the (NHS) hospital if they did (ignoring quite how they would delay the operation, they don't control the list directly). 'Breaching' (as in breaching the 18 weeks time limit) is a big deal in the NHS, as it's one of the key criteria hospital are judged on. So it's also a key criteria on which departments and individual consultants are judged. So if were breaching, they would need to justify why, and show waht action they were doing to avoid it in the future.

The normal way of dealing with a likleyhood of breaching is to run extra operating lists (which will quite often cost more, but not as much as paying for it privately, as they may well have to pay for consutlants and other operating staff to work extra sessions)

The private hospital doesn't care, if the NHS has decided to use their services.

Reply to
chris French
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My GP always has same-day appointments. It's a cunning plan, whereby an appointment won't be accepted until there's a slot on the same day, so I have to keep ringin up... The GP can say that he always sees patients on the same day that the appointments are made.

Reply to
PeterC

This is a result of the interference by Blair I think.

We get told we can go to the walk in centre but they won't deal with anything that requires referral or further treatment - and it's not 24 hours either as it was when the new place first opened. If it'd been put next to A&E they could have triaged people appropriately.

I wonder if they make a note of which GPs have most patients ending up at the WIC?

I don't care about a few days wait to see a doc - I do mind wasting half my life re-ringing for an appointment.

Reply to
mogga

I had an eye problem last week. Optician referred me to the walk in centre at a local hospital. I walked in in the morning, and walked out none the wiser after 2 hours. Walked back in in the afternoon and waited another couple of hours. Finally I was seen at tea time. Now that's a lot of faffing around BUT 45 mins of expert examination, barely 24 hours after strolling into a high street optician, is pretty amazing IMO :-)

Reply to
stuart noble

If everyone shared taht opinion the system would probably work a lot better. The probelm is the Romney proportion who believe they have an entitlement to instant health gratification.

MBQ

Reply to
Man at B&Q

I went to my optician as a result of purple flashes in one eye. As they had happened the previous week, when I had been abroad, there had been too long a delay and he could not refer me to the hospital. I went to my GP who referred me and, according to his chart, my symptoms qualified for being seen within 24 hours. Three months later, when I eventually got to see the consultant, he told me to come in first thing next day, as I needed an emergency operation to correct a torn retina.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
Nightjar

I had a similar thing happen a lot of floaters suddenly appeared.

Saw the doc that evening referred to hospital following day laser welded back the retina job done all just after lunch:)....

The brightest green light I ever did see;!...

Reply to
tony sayer

Sorry to hear that. I can't say what would have happened in my case if the retina had been damaged, but I got the impression it would have been dealt with pretty quickly, albeit not in my local hospital.

Fortunately it was a burst blood vessel which, although spectacular in a Windows screensaver kind of way, wasn't dangerous :-)

Reply to
stuart noble

I was fortunate in that the retina did not detach during the three months I was waiting, so it was quickly dealt with once it had ben dignosed, particularly as everybody else in the same day was there for cataract operations and a vital piece of equipment had broken down, so I was moved to the head of the queue as my operation didn't need it.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
Nightjar

Some eye hospitals offer emergency appointments - e.g. Oxford. I would have expected you to qualify.

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Reply to
polygonum

I qualified for an appointment within 24 hours, but it was three months before I actually got one.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
Nightjar

That truly is crap.

Reply to
polygonum

I hear you can just drop into Moorfields if you happen to be anywhere near London. You need to take War and Peace to read though

Reply to
stuart noble

That's heavy going at best. But it is really difficult when you are suffering from iritis. :-)

Guess you need an audiobook version.

Reply to
polygonum

No, you take a Kindle. Then you can have:

- unlimited reading material

- the ability to wind up the point size if having trouble

- the ability to listen to it being read to you (most books)

!!!

Reply to
Bob Eager

In a horrible yank-robot voice?

Reply to
polygonum

Well, you can't have everything.

Reply to
Bob Eager

Yes and its a right bugger when you need to see a doctor, it's not urgent, but you can only make appointments on the day and you work an hour's drive away!

SteveW

Reply to
SteveW

And, quite how many seconds before 08:00 can you press 'dial' on your phone and actually get through - rather than diverted to a 'we're not open yet' message - and lose your place in the so-called queue. And if you left it until it's actually 08:00 you'd be position 20 in the queue and hardly a chance of an appointment...

Or you get through, you think, and find they are closed today for training. And is that shown on their pathetic excuse for a website?

Reply to
polygonum

My father had similar, but worse. An optician told him to go to the hospital. He saw a consultant far quicker than you and they gave him a return appointment three months later, but then moved it back a month. In that extra month his retina detached - while he was away alone, with his car, in France. He had to get himself and his car back, then had an operation and spent 10 days and nights lying face down, so that the air they'd injected would hold his retina in place. Luckily he recovered 80% of his vision in that eye.

SteveW

Reply to
SteveW

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