AIBU to ask my GP if they forgot to refer me?

[NovaArt3mis]

Asked my GP for a referral to gyno specialist 8 weeks ago.

Haven't heard a peep. It's not an emergency so I didn't expect an appointment quickly but I did expect some form of correspondence.

Should I call medical practice to ask them to double check that the referral was definitely sent or just sit tight a bit longer?

Thanks

Phone them, mistakes happen.

Chase it up

No harm in calling your GP's surgery to ask if they know how long they expect it will take, that way you will either know how much longer you have left to wait or if they have forgotten they will be reminded.

Phone them and ask

Nope. They forgot to refer me to the midwife so I missed my 12 week scan

Yes - phone them and check. My sons referral got lost between GP and hospital. Was sorted within one hour once I realised it was not received.

Don't ask if they forgot, just call and say you havent heard from them so could they chase it up please.

8 weeks isn't long if it's not urgent though

Oh no kimonono
Have you had a scan now?

I was referred for something earlier in the year and hadn't heard anything 6 weeks later. I just popped to the surgery in when I was driving past and asked the receptionist when she thought I was likely to hear. She had a print out of the waiting times (how long it would take to hear) for each hospital department for non-urgent issues. She said that mine was 8 weeks- got the letter the next week.

It can't hurt to ask

8 weeks is perfectly long enough to still be waiting. No harm checking that the referral has actually been sent off.

Brilliant, thanks all. Will give them a quick call tomorrow to ask if they have a rough timescale.

Definitely phone & ask... the receptionist should be able to check for you.

My own GP forgot to refer me for an urgent kidney scan when I was pregnant recently.

Chase it up.
I saw my gp about worrying bleeding early in this pregnancy and he said he would send a fax referral to the EPAU and I should receive a phone call from them either the same day or the following day. Still hadn't heard anything 3 days later, so I called the hospital switchboard and got put through to the EPAU midwife, who told me they don't even have a fax machine anymore so would never have received the referral

Chase it up. My GP surgery sent the referral (antenatal) but the hospital did not receive it as they sent it the wrong method (fax vs email). You may need to call the place it should have got sent as even once mine was sent they missed it.

Yes, I would check. But I'd actually call the hospital and ask to talk to the appointments department or to the gynae secretaries.
My hospital recently banned faxes as they don't feel it's secure enough but haven't actually told all the GPs and given them the replacement email addresses.... facepalm

Hah, you guys aren't filling me full of hope that I've actually been referred!

And I'm not actually sure which hospital the specialists would be based at so can't call them directly. But I'll call GP tomorrow and see how I get on.

Haha sorry, there's so many stages a referral goes through before you're actually seen I think it's a minor miracle anyone ever gets an appointment!! I wouldn't think 8 weeks is out of the ordinary for a gynae wait and the first appt letter often comes very shortly before the appt date itself, def worth checking though. It's much quicker than 8 wks where I work but that's unusual I think X

I recently chased an appointment after not hearing for a month or so. I decided to call the department at the hospital, who told me they hadn't even received the request for an appointment from the gp. I gave them the fax number the gp's had sent it too, they didn't recognise the number ( great data protection!)

Do phone. I'm a GP. I have a fairly fail safe method of remembering to do referrals but if I get distracted I forget. I have been known to wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat having remembered and have to rush In In the morning and do a referral. We are human and humans make errors. I usually suggest to the patient that I will refer them and say "let me just put a note in my "to do" list so I don't forget" it's an electronic list and sometimes it get really long but I clear it weekly (usually on my afternoon off)