How long is the wait for non urgent and semi urgent appointments/operations

[elliejjtiny]

And can children be removed from the peadiatric waiting list when they get too old?

Ds2 is 6.5 months into a wait for a "semi urgent" operation to remove his infected toenail that was meant to be a 2-3 month wait. I've chased it up several times and been told that the waiting list is longer now, lots of urgent cases etc, could be another 3 months. He is 17 and I'm concerned that at some point they will remove him from the paediatric list and we will have to start all over again.

Also ds4 has been waiting 2 months for a non urgent appointment to see the consultant about a suspected cyst. I've chased that up too, just been told that it will be a long wait.

I never seem to wait longer than 2-4 weeks for a hospital appointment where I am in the north east. My recent appointments were 2 weeks, 3 weeks and 3 days notice.

I had routine surgery in autumn and I only waited 4 weeks for it.

It's all haphazard. Our son needed an infected toe nail partly removed and was seen within a week of the referral after the GP had spent months farting around with it saying that child podiatry had a 9 month waiting list!

I needed hearing aids where the GP said the hospital audiology dept had a 2-3 month waiting list but it took over a year to get the appointment.

Son had a lump on his neck and GP made an urgent referral for an ultrasound scan which took 9 months!

There's no rhyme nor reason.

DD has an ENT appt in August…after a 1.5 yr wait. We were so desperate that we paid for a private initial consultation, were told she needed surgery but obviously couldn’t afford that privately, chucked back into the NHS and still waiting. That’s not even to have the surgery, just a follow up from the private one we paid for - by the dr who also works at the NHS hospital!

So yes, I would be really worried they will take your DS off the list and put him at the back of adults once he is 18. I would call them and check the process hopefully they are not as rude as when I called a year in to waiting.

Is there a particular reason it’s on a paed list?… would normally be something that could be accommodated on any old gen surgery or ortho list. You need to clarify with that particular hospital because every Trust will have its own protocols/waiting list lengths (you might find it gets done sooner if it is on a list that’s not dedicated for kids).

I asked at the time and the consultant said that he was a child so he needed to be on the paeds list. That was when he was still 16 and we thought the operation would be done in 2-3 months.

i got a phone call the other day saying my son had been removed from a waiting list as he has turned 17. He’s had to go back to gp to get re referred 🤦🏻‍♀️

To give you an idea: lumbar facet joint pain - approaching three years after initial referral for nerve ablation to deal with it. It will be more than three years by the time I am treated - I have no idea when at the moment.
Sleep apnoea - website is quoting 33 weeks plus for initial appointment.
Treatment to have an arthritic finger joint fused - 36 weeks for initial appointment.
Results for tongue biopsy after referral from dentist - 6-8 weeks, but the receptionist couldn’t book me in as according to her the diary doesn’t go that far ahead.
It’s a pile of shite. I’m sorry you’re dealing with it.
I ended up going privately to get breast pain investigated as I couldn’t bear to wait the ten weeks via the NHS, even though it was a two week wait referral.
I wish you luck.

It completely depends how long the surgeon’s waiting list is. 🤷🏻‍♀️ No one can tell you this. I had 3 urgent cancer surgeries last year, all booked within about 2 weeks. I’m now on the routine surgery list with the same surgeon and it’s about 6 months.

It will completely depend on demand and other urgent, potentially life saving surgeries and how full the surgeons caseload already is.

Thank you. I'm worried about ds2's foot tbh. His toe has been red, swollen and weepy for about 9 months now and 3 courses of pretty strong antibiotics haven't helped. The consultant said he shouldn't be on antibiotics and just keep his foot dry but it can't be good for him.

I found out today that ds4's non urgent appointment is next month. Very pleasantly surprised as I thought that if a semi urgent operation waiting time is more than 7 months then we were unlikely to get a non urgent appointment before Christmas.