Hospital won’t rebook cancelled appointment, but I can’t complain

Have you shopped around?

The policy is based on risk.

How is your condition going to necessitate cover on holiday?

How many quotes have you got?

I've got friends who had cancer and simply excluded it from a policy for cover as they didn't feel they needed emergency cover on holiday.

To be honest this is all a bit back to front.

If this is about getting insurancec over for an existing condition, it possibly won't matter a jot where you are in the queue for that- awaiting a consultation, booked for surgery etc.

I fully get that you want your condition treated.

However, what is not clear from your posts is how this is going to make any difference to your holiday or your holiday insurance.

Most policies ask if you have a consultation booked and if so, the cost goes up depending on the condition and risk factors.

If you have a scan, you will then presumably be on a waiting list for surgery because that is what you think will happen.

The insurance company won't (IMO) differentiate between waiting for a diagnosis and waiting for surgery.

Your policy will be based on having a condition.

You can take out insurance an tick a box to exclude cover for it.
If your condition is unlikely to worsen on holiday (and not need treatment or emergency air flight home) you can choose to exclude it.

If you aren't having surgery before August it's not likely to change your cover whether you're waiting for a scan or waiting for surgery.

And the bottom line is whether your condition is likely to increase your policy at all- because it is either an added risk needing medical treatment overseas or not.

Have you tried getting a quote based on the various scenarios-

1. As it it now

2. With a scan lined up
3. Surgery planned.

IMO your policy is far more likely to be costly if you have surgery planned .

It was to the OP. I would expect a long wait for anything physio related, and I would also expect to wait as long for a rebooking as the initial booking took. I agree that in some cases - a two week pathway being the most obvious but not only example - it's far too long.

If it helps, my DH works for the NHS. I had to contact PALS at the hospital he works for and afterwards the department looking after me massively improved their care and communication. They knew he was my DH as they recognised him. A lot of the time it's not making a complaint, it's asking for help communicating with an uncontactable department.

Everyone working at the hospital has appointments, issues and occasional complaints so of course you can use PALS when you have a problem! It isn’t going to be seen as jumping a queue as you’re a patient in the system not a staff member; life gets much easier when you stop double guessing what people may think of you.

Yes exactly - I'm in touch with PALS currently and it's not a complaint. It's twofold - to find out where my referral is on the list (appreciating dynamism etc, but will it be Christmas - as estimated on the 36 week wait on the website - or is it closer in time) and, if it isn't due within the next three months then how to go about paying for my own CT scan that will be recognised by the NHS e.g. by a moonlighting consultant. It's the 'A' in PALS - I've asked for advice. They're happy to do it - the lady I spoke to was lovely - but it has been two weeks since she has been in touch now...

Again, it isn’t hateful to be critical or an organisation that is negligent and putting people’s health at unnecessary risk or leaving them living in constant pain unnecessarily.

I don’t know if this comment was a reply to me or to the OP but it is far too long in some cases, for example when tests or treatment are required to be carried out on a two week pathway.

Did I say it was? I was merely rejecting your insult that I am “like a dog with a bone” which implies an impulsive and unreasoned response.

I had an hospital appointment cancelled, my GP referred me back.

Friend is waiting for an operation. Hers is a heart valve replacement so it is something that could effectively mean her actual demise. She cancelled her planned holiday. It’s been 7 months now and she had to also travel out of area for both of the scans she needed, all the way to London for one with the associated cost to her plus a day off work.

You are going to have to pay a lot more for travel insurance but at least you are diagnosed so can get insurance . I am still awaiting the result of my cardiac MRI so dare not book anything, many insurers won’t cover if still awaiting the diagnosis as the cost is astronomical.

I think as you are NHS admin people are reacting negatively because that is the part of the NHS that is an absolute shitshow. My nieces are a matron and a low grade NHS manager. I feel bad for both of them, my admin niece explained how some of the databases she works with are from the early 1990’s and absolute crap. It’s the 250k managers that make the decisions not my poor niece she just has to live with them. NHS systems will always be rubbish because almost anyone with superior programming skills will not work for them. My IT mate who works for an investment bank said the NHS were advertising a role in IT security, they pay more to their graduate scheme new starters.

OP, ignore the NHS haters. What you explained was perfectly clear and they are just jumping on this post to push their own agenda.

I know you have said the booking service is miles away, but I honestly do think it is worth going to them and speaking to someone in person. Years ago I needed an op. I got chatting to the receptionist for the team and was just nice to him. I explained that I lived nearby and work was flexible so if they ever got a cancellation I could be there in less than an hour. 2 weeks later I got a call from him saying someone had cancelled their op the next day, and so I went in and got it done. My original op had been booked for 6 months later.

What an awful experience, as though having cancer isn’t stressful enough. Your poor DH. I am glad to hear PALS were able to help you. Comments like the OPs may discourage people from using the service and clearly it is essential when care is so poor and negligent that it’s putting people at risk, or even “just” leaving them in unnecessary pain or with deteriorating health when conditions are treatable which is obviously made much worse if the NHS staff don’t even bother to provide clear information on waiting times.

I also don't actually think 4 weeks is an unusually long wait for an appointment to be booked, but I guess my standards for response times in the NHS are low!

Well, some people who encounter you might make their own judgement as to whether you're a 'good' or a 'bad' PALS user, just like you do according to this post. Your options are to run that risk, or keep waiting.

Of perhaps just someone who has been subjected to negligent delays in treatment and treated appallingly for complaining that urgent procedures on a two week pathway were not even booked after 4 weeks… not an uncommon experience it seems.

I am very surprised that you don’t know if PALS has been involved……i am absolutely informed via email, clinical message etc. As is my secretary, site manager, trust departmental team etc etc.
Whilst a chunk of their work is absolutely appropriate and I am pleased it is available, it is absolutely weaponised by families to get what they want even if that is not clinically appropriate or there are other more urgent cases.

Nail on the head. My DH has cancer and the admin/management of the oncology dept has been an absolute shambles, right from day one, and he's now into his 8th year of continuous treatment (ongoing maintenance chemo). Every month was a nightmare of getting the right appointments at the right time in the right order and then the chemo drugs wouldn't be ready for collection on the appointed start day of the monthly cycle, thus pushing back the start date which in turn meant the pre-booked appointments for the next month (i.e. blood test, consultant phone call, infusion) all had to be put back a few days, which in turn meant more admin/appointment cock ups. He didn't want to complain but it got so stressful in the end that I persuaded him to go through PALS. Nothing happened quickly, but we did start to be given "direct" phone numbers of more senior admin staff rather than the carousel of new staff who answered the phone and hadn't a clue what to do. A year or so since he made his first PALS complaint and it's all a lot better now - simple things like appointments being booked for the right days in the right order, the chemo drug prescription being ready for the day treatment starts, etc. Not rocket science, but it took someone to give them a kick up the bum to start doing things properly.