To ask if this is reasonable (Doctor related)

[PassingStranger]

I need a cortisone shot. A few years ago I got one at the doctors very easily, was offered one there and then in the surgery.
Now I come to ask again, and told there's now a waiting list and there is a special day they do them.
I'm on the list. They cannot or will not tell me how long the wait is even approximately.
They just say they will ring you.
You can't plan to go away or anything?
What has happened to the NHS, and why is it a better way this way, than letting people make an appointment to have it done?

Crazy
Ffs
They should be giving a very approx wait time.

I've asked twice and they won't.

Nhs has gone downhill.

Anyone on here, work at a surgery?

It depends on why and where you need a hydrocortisone injection. It's not a common thing to get at a GP surgery.

It's not commonly provided in surgeries anymore, it'll either be funding or insurance/medicolegal reasons. I work in NHS and dont know anywhere local to me who provides it.

If the service is hosted centrally through a hospital team your GP surgery just wont have any access to the waiting lists, which wont be fixed. I.e. they'll see routine, urgent and emergencies - if you're down as urgent but the team keep being referred more emergencies then you're delayed.

If it is a service provided at your surgery then I'm surprised they can't give you a specific date as they'll have a lot more control over it. There's likely a frustrating reason why they've decided not to give dates out until closer to the time.

It's frustrating as I suspect if people knew how long the lists are they could be better informed about whether to stump up for private or continue to wait.

They might only have one Dr that does it and will wait to put on a specific clinic time .

Why do you need a cortisone shot? I have been a GP for 10 years and a GP trainee for 3 years before that and have never worked anywhere that does these.

Do you mean Kenalog for hay fever? This was stopped years ago due to safety fears.

Or do you mean a steroid joint injection? These are mainly done under ultrasound guidance now so you won't find many GP practices that do it, they'd need to refer on.

It must be as there's a waiting list.

Not every doctor does these injections. In the surgery I worked in, only certain doctors did them.

Our surgery does depomedrone ( methyl prednisolone acetate) joint injections but only certain GPs do this and patients need assessing first to see if they're suitable but I can't recall giving hydrocortisone apart from anaphylaxis or asthma and it's usually an emergency injection more commonly used in hospitals.

Steriod join, they do them at my GPS but won't say how long to wait, surely they must know?

Or do you mean a steroid joint injection? These are mainly done under ultrasound guidance now so you won't find many GP practices that do it, they'd need to refer on.

I've had many of these over the years (arthritis) both privately and under the NHS but never by my GP. The last few have been via ultrasound or X-ray although they used to do them without either.

I'd be very impressed if your GP offered it, mine don't really do anything beyond standard vaccinations and blood tests in the surgery.

Exactly.

It isnt about "better this way", it's about desperate efficiency measures because GPs are so overbooked. Which everyone knows.

My GP used to give me steroid injections but now we have a Dr who comes in to the surgery and does the injections there. The waiting list takes about 2 and a half months.

I got in at my own GP surgery for a shoulder injection within a few days of being referred by the physio.
At the surgery where I work as a receptionist, there are two GPs that do joint injections two days a week and we can normally get patients booked in within a couple of weeks.

Wait at my local GP is about 4- 6 weeks, only one is qualified to do it. The other two able to do it left (one moved, one retired) and the rest can’t do it.

TBF they are kind of out of favour now. There’s a lot of evidence around the damage they do to your joints and hastening things along to joint replacement. Similarly to how surgeons used to do “joint washouts” and arthroscopy; most evidence suggests over the age of around 35, unless you’ve got a specific traumatic injury to be fixed such as an ACL, then they shouldn’t be done. That’s not saying some surgeons still do them, but those who are up to date and involved in research are doing more evidence based treatment -and that does not include PRP or other nonsense like hyaluronic acid infections, which debulk wallets and little else!

I'd love to know more about what the alternative evidence based treatment options are if possible? I had 4 years of cortisone injections into my thumb joints due to arthritis, until they were finally willing to operate just after I turned 40. My other joints are headed the same way so if I should be looking into other things to ask for it would be really helpful to know what to research @MrsElijahMikaelson1 , thank you in advance!

TBF they are kind of out of favour now. There’s a lot of evidence around the damage they do to your joints and hastening things along to joint replacement.

They are. Orthopaedic surgeons are reticent to let you have them and even then, it's generally just one. They can cause long term damage to your soft tissue - I regularly had knee injections when I was younger and now I have permanently swollen knees from synovitis which makes me feel quite self conscious.

I had a steroid injection in my shoulder a couple of weeks ago and it's made my shoulder worse but reduced the swelling in my knees. Some you win, some you lose! The surgeon was also pretty unenthusiastic about an arthroscopy and said there was only a 50% chance of improvement.

I'm having a course of shockwave therapy in my hip at the moment. I had a second opinion after my hip replacements (I was in my 40s so on the younger side for a replacement) and the hip consultant was keen on PRP. But the consultant doing the shockwave treatment (who used to treat the GB Olympic team and is well regarded in his field) also said PRP could damage the tendon.

Joint pain is a bugger to live with and try to fix!

I had to wait 6 months for a steroid injection last year . My doctors at the time held a waiting list and once they had a whole days worth of patients needing one they employed a specialist locum for the day . Hence they couldn’t give a waiting list time because it was dependent on how long it took for enough patients to need it .

However less than a year later the problem is back , so they’ve booked me back into physio .